Erick Blackerby Teen Killer Murders Teenager

Erick Blackerby teen killer

Erick Blackerby was sixteen years old when he beat to death another teenager with a baseball bat. According to court documents Eric Blackerby was watching his brother fight the victim when he jumped in and struck the victim with a baseball bat causing his death. This teen killer would be convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison

Eric Blackerby 2023 Information

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Inmate: BLACKERBY, ERIC MATTHEW
AIS: 00310930
  
Institution: STATON CORRECTIONAL CENTER

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Eric Blackerby was sentenced Tuesday to spend his life in prison for killing another teen with a baseball bat in 2015.

Eric Blackerby was found guilty of murder after a three-day trial in August. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole by Shelby County Circuit Judge William Bostick, III.

“Mr. Blackerby, you’re the person parents fear the worst,” Bostick said before announcing the sentence. “You brought that bat knowing what would happen.”

Erskine Mathis, one of 18-year-old Erick Blackerby’s lawyers, said in court he would appeal the sentence.

Erick Blackerby briefly spoke before being sentenced. “I’m very sorry for the family’s loss, and I do hope the best for them. I’m very sorry.”

The Alabaster teen was just 16 when he was arrested and charged in the death of 19-year-old William Allen Neff.

Neff was beaten to death during a fight at a popular teen hangout spot called “The Slab” in Shelby County. Erick Blackerby was initially charged with first-degree assault, but the charge was upgraded to murder after Neff died two days later.

“He took his bat, and swung it with full force,” Shelby County Deputy District Attorney Roger Hepburn said during opening statements. “He unnecessarily… cruelly killed somebody with that bat. And that’s why we’re here.”

Information presented at trial showed the fight on July 28, 2015 started after Erick Blackerby’s older brother and Neff got into a verbal altercation over a girl they both knew. The two boys arranged the fight at The Slab, and the younger Blackerby attended along with about nine of their friends. Hepburn said during the fight, Neff was losing– he was lying on the ground, with the older Blackerby brother on top of him, when the younger Blackerby brother (Eric) jumped in the fight and and hit Neff with an aluminum baseball bat.

Several other teenagers who were present the night of the fight testified during the trial, along with the Blackerby brothers.

Neff’s mother, Taleigha Palmer, spoke at Tuesday’s sentencing. “My brain doesn’t really work as well as it used to. My heart is always hurting,” she said. She said Neff’s father, Vann, died about a month before the trial began. He had a heart condition, but Palmer said Neff’s death exacerbated his health problems.

She also read a letter from her son John, one of Neff’s brothers. He wrote, “It’s been two years since my little brother was killed… At first, you think of the obvious things… he’ll never marry, he’ll never have children, he’ll never get to grow up.” John’s letter continued, “We’ll never get to argue about movies, or embarrass each other in front of a new girlfriend.” John said a “lifetime of small joys and small moments” is what he misses most about his brother.

Numerous people spoke for Blackerby at the hearing, including the former director of Shelby County juvenile court, John Miller. He said he met Erick Blackerby when the teen was 15 and had been arrested for being a minor in possession of alcohol. Because Blackerby had no prior arrests, he was allowed to participate in a program and avoid prosecution. Miller said during that year he worked with Blackerby, the teen was “respectful, fully compliant, and on time.” He described the teen as “likable, smart, and compassionate” and said he “always took up for the underdog.”

Erick Blackerby’s girlfriend’s father Tom Underhill also spoke on behalf of Blackerby. He said Blackerby is a “very dedicated and hard working young man,” and said he only misses work to attend his daughter’s doctors visits. She is pregnant with Blackerby’s first child.

Two other family friends spoke, and said Erick Blackerby is a kind teenager who made a grave mistake.

Mathis argued at trial Erick Blackerby was afraid of Neff and took the bat to the fight for protection. Mathis said Blackerby was a small teen, and had a “16-year-old brain,” with premature thoughts and logic. “He had no intention of killing anyone. But, unfortunately, he did kill someone,” Mathis said.

Erick Blackerby said at his trial he hit Neff at least twice, and the coroner’s report showed one of those hits was fatal.

An indictment stating Neff died of numerous hits to the head was corrected before trial, and the judge denied hearing a second youthful offender hearing based on the fact that only one hit was the cause of death.

The jury did receive instructions on a self-defense claim, but denied that charge and opted to convict the teen of intentional murder

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Eric Blackerby is currently incarcerated at the Ventress Correctional Center

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Eric Blackerby is life without parole

Cassie Bjorge Teen Killer Murders Grandparents

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Cassie Bjorge was seventeen years old when along with her eighteen year old boyfriend Johnny Rider murdered her Grandparents.

According to court documents Cassandra Bjorge and Johnny Rider planned the double murders for days before the killing actually took place. On the night of the murders they waited for her Grandparents to go to sleep and then they attacked. Johnny Rider attacked the Grandfather and Cassie Bjorge would drag her Grandmother into the bedroom and began to assault her. The elderly couple would have their throats slit.

The teens would then barricade the bedroom and invite friends over for a party. Police believe the two teen killers stayed in the home for days after the murders. On top of the murder of her Grandparents the teen killers had planned to kill Johnny Rider’s mother and sister.

The two teens would both be sentenced to life in prison

Cassie Bjorge 2024 Information

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NAME: BJORGE, CASSANDRA

GDC ID: 1002246318

YOB: 2000
RACE: WHITE
GENDER: FEMALE
HEIGHT: 5’03”
WEIGHT: 120
EYE COLOR: BROWN
HAIR COLOR: BROWN

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: ARRENDALE STATE PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: LIFE

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A Georgia teen who allegedly confessed to killing her grandparents with her boyfriend, sealing up their room and then hosting a party for unsuspecting friends, also planned to kill several other people WSB-TV reports.

According to WSB-TV, Cassie Bjorge, 17, and her boyfriend, Johnny Rider, 18, planned the murders of her grandparents for days and thought out details such as caulking the doors shut in the house to keep the odor of death from being detected outside.

Gwinnett County Police Detective Dave Brucz told WSB-TV the teens waited outside Bjorge’s grandparent’s home for the lights to go out, then snuck into the couple’s bedrooms.

“Johnny began to attack the grandfather, Cassie then said she had a surge of energy,” Brucz said in court Wednesday. “She then dragged her grandmother into her grandfather’s bedroom, she was duct taped.”

Investigators say the teens then beat the grandparents, Randall and Wendy Bjorge, before slicing their throats and leaving them for dead.

According to the report, Cassie Bjorge confessed to staying in the home and smoking pot for a few days after the murders. She even invited friends over for a party — friends who had no idea what had happened.

Police say Bjorge confessed that she went as far as pretending to be her grandmother via text message so family wouldn’t suspect anything was wrong.

“She admitted after the murder she was texting family members because they were worried about them, and she was pretending to be Wendy,” Brucz told the courtroom.

WSB-TV reports the teens are not only accused of killing, Bjorge’s grandparents, but they are also of trying to kill Rider’s sister and boyfriend.

“She also said they were planning on killing Johnny’s family and there were plans on killing her mother also,” Brucz also told the courtroom.

Police told WSB-TV that Bjorge believed her grandparents had become too strict.

“She had basically had enough of her grandparents,” Brucz said.

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A 17-year old girl and her boyfriend received life in prison on Friday for the 2017 murder of her grandparents, reports WSB-TV

Cassandra Bjorge and her boyfriend, Johnny Hiro Rider, pleaded guilty to stabbing and bludgeoning Bjorge’s grandparents to death with a tire iron.

In court Monday, Rider asked for forgiveness and described his actions as “evil,” WSB-TV reports.

“I know what I have done is abominable and evil and is deserving of hellfire,” Rider said. “I would like to express my deepest apologies to the Bjorge family. I’m so sorry for the pain and grief I have caused all of you.”

Bjorge did not speak. 

According to the station, police say the teens used a tire iron, hammer, baseball bat and butcher knives to kill the couple, then caulked doors inside the home to attempt to keep the smell of the bodies inside.  A detective testified last April that Bjorge and Rider stayed in the home smoking pot and partying with friends for several days while Randall and Wendy Bjorge’s bodies laid upstairs. 

Gwinnett County Homicide Detective Dave Brucz reportedly testified last year that Bjorge confessed to the crime.

Johnny began to attack the grandfather,” testified Brucz, “Cassie then said that she basically had a surge of energy. She then dragged her grandmother into her grandfather’s bedroom. She was duct-taped.”

Police also reportedly say that Bjorge and Rider planned to kill several other people, including Rider’s family and Bjorge’s mother, but that Rider backed out of the plan. They are, however, accused of trying to kill Rider’s sister and her boyfriend.

Rider’s sister escaped, and that led to the teens’ capture more than a week after the grandparents’ murders.

https://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/local/gwinnett-teens-get-life-sentences-after-pleading-guilty-to-murder-of-grandparents/article_92faa761-e2e9-5ac2-8445-4db85b751679.html

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Lacy Aaron Schmidt Teen Killer Murders Ex Girlfriend

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Lacy Aaron Schmidt was fourteen years old when he murdered his fourteen year old ex girlfriend. According to court documents Schmidt planned the murder for several weeks before the crime took place. The night before the murder he stole a gun from the victim’s father.

On the day of the murder Schmidt would walk behind the victim as she looked on her phone and fatally shot her in the back of the head. This teen killer would be sentenced to life in prison without parole

Lacy Aaron Schmidt 2023 Information

aaron schmidt 2020 photos

YOB: 1996
RACE: WHITE
GENDER: MALE
HEIGHT: 6’02”
WEIGHT: 157
EYE COLOR: BROWN
HAIR COLOR: BLN&STR

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: HAYS STATE PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: LIFE, W/O PAROLE

Lacy Aaron Schmidt Other News

The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction of a Columbia County teenager sentenced to life without parole for murdering his 14 year-old neighbor in Harlem. Schmidt shot and killed Alana Calahan, his friend and one-time girlfriend, at her home in January of 2011.

In February of 2012, Lacy Aaron Schmidt was convicted of malice murder, felony murder while in the commission of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of the crime, and theft by taking a handgun.

Prosecutors say Lacy Aaron Schmidt planned the shooting and stole a handgun from Alana’s father days earlier. They say he shot her in the back of the head while the Harlem Middle School student was on Facebook uploading photos, then dragged the body to the woods behind the home to cover up the crime.

Lacy Aaron Schmidt was sentenced to life without parole, five years for possession of a firearm and 10 years for theft to be served consecutive to the life sentence.

Schmidt appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, arguing Judge Michael Annis did not let jurors know they could chose to find Schmidt guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a less serious charge.Lacy Aaron Schmidt also claimed his trial attorney was ineffective and that his sentence was “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Presiding Justice P. Harris Hines, however, says the high court has rejected all his arguments. He finds the evidence “was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Lacy Aaron Schmidt guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which he was convicted.”

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On January 31, 2011, fourteen-year-old Alana Calahan was fatally shot while in her home in Columbia County. Schmidt, who was then also fourteen years old, lived nearby on the same street and he and Alana were friends. The two were “boyfriend and girlfriend” for a brief time until Alana’s youth pastor advised her that she was too young for such a relationship. Nonetheless, Schmidt spent a lot of time with Alana and her family.

About a week before Alana’s murder, Schmidt entered the Calahan house when no one in the family was home; Alana was the first to arrive home and noticed that the door to the house was unlocked. Alana’s mother asked Schmidt how he got into the house, and Schmidt responded that the door had been left unlocked.

The mother did not believe him and angrily told him that he could not come to the house unless she or her husband was there. Schmidt was also forbidden to come over before 5:00 p. m. on week days. The family kept a shotgun and a handgun in the parents’ master bedroom, and the children were not allowed to enter the bedroom or touch the guns.

On the day of the murder, as Alana’s sister was waiting in the family pickup truck to transport Alana from the school bus drop off location to their house, Schmidt appeared and told the sister that he was not allowed to come over for the next two weeks. After the school bus driver dropped off Alana, the driver saw Schmidt walking nearby; Schmidt had his hands in his pockets and the hood from his jacket was pulled over his head. Immediately after the drop off, Alana was picked up by her sister and taken home.

About twenty or thirty minutes later, the sister left the house to pick up their brother from the bus stop. At that time, Alana was at a computer, which was located beside the house’s sliding back door. During the approximately ten minutes the sister was gone, Schmidt entered the house, shot Alana in the back of the neck, and dragged her to the woods outside the house. Alana died from the gunshot wound to her neck.

The sister returned and saw Schmidt’s shoes inside the house, along with Alana’s shoes; it was common practice for family and friends to take their shoes off upon entering the house. The sister observed that the chair that Alana had been sitting in was knocked over and there was blood, later identified as Alana’s, all over the carpet. Schmidt came into the house through the front door and told the sister that someone had taken Alana and that he did not know what to do. Schmidt then went outside with Alana’s sister and brother, ostensibly to help in the search for Alana.

Schmidt quickly said he spotted Alana, pointed in a certain direction, and led the siblings to Alana’s body. The sister did not believe that Schmidt could have seen the body from his initial vantage point. Schmidt approached Alana’s body, and tried to pull a stick out of her hair; he then “started freaking out saying, oh, my [G]od, now my prints are on her and they’re going to think I killed her.” Schmidt did not cry upon seeing the body. The sister unsuccessfully attempted to revive Alana, and called police.

The police arrived to find Alana’s sister and brother crying and screaming, but Schmidt displayed absolutely no emotion; indeed, Schmidt acted as if “there was [not] a care in the world.” During police interviews, Schmidt exhibited conduct which raised suspicion, including attempts to cry which appeared to be disingenuous. After telling the police at least five different stories about what transpired, Schmidt admitted to having taken Alana’s father’s handgun from the master bedroom, and allegedly accidentally shooting Alana with it as he stood behind her attempting to unload it.

However, it was later determined that in the position of the handgun mechanism as described by Schmidt, 13 pounds of pressure would have to be applied to the trigger in order to fire the handgun. Investigators later searched Schmidt’s residence and found a gun box, ammunition, and an owner’s manual for the murder weapon. The police determined that it was not possible for Schmidt to have brought the gun box to his home during the brief interval in which Alana was shot, and that he would have had to obtain it beforehand.

In Schmidt’s book bag, stashed in his bedroom closet, police found other items belonging to the Calahan family, including an iPod, RCA MP3 player, and a digital camera. Alana’s house keys were thought to be lost prior to her death, but were found several weeks later under mats on the floor of the Calahan family’s pickup, to which Schmidt had access.

Lacy Aaron Schmidt Resentencing

The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction and life prison sentence for a 14-year-old boy who shot and killed a 14-year-old girl in the east Georgia town of Harlem.

Authorities said the boy, Lacy Aaron Schmidt, went to his friend Alana Calahan’s house and shot her in the back of the neck in January 2011. They say he then dragged her into nearby woods, where she died from the gunshot wound, and later tried to make it appear that someone had abducted her.

Schmidt appealed his conviction to the Georgia Supreme Court, saying a judge and his lawyer had made legal mistakes, and that his sentence amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

The court said Monday that his arguments were rejected, and his conviction and sentence were upheld.

https://www.wtxl.com/news/state-high-court-upholds-boy-s-conviction-in-killing-of/article_ab65991e-5aeb-11e5-bd0d-bbf0cc1153a0.html

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