new york | My Crime Library

Sid Vicious Celebrity Crime

Sid Vicious was a member of the legendary band The Sex Pistols however he is best known for being arrested and accused of the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. Sid Vicious would never go to trial for the murder as he would die from a drug overdose weeks later. Lets take a closer look at Sid Vicious and the murder of Nancy Spungen

Sid Vicious And The Sex Pistols

Sid Vicious would be a number of bands before he was asked to be in The Sex Pistols in 1977 to be the bass player, funny enough Sid Vicious was not a very good guitar player and would only perform on one song during the band’s biggest album Never Mind The Bullocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols. The other members of the band recorded the majority of the album while Sid Vicious was in the hospital for hepatitis.

In 1978 The Sex Pistols would break up due to inner fighting and drug use.

Sid Vicious And Nancy Spungen

Sid Vicious would meet Nancy Spungen and she would soon be touring with the band. Nancy was a diagnosed schizophrenic and would be labled by the media as “Nauseating Nancy” due to her behavior.

After The Sex Pistols broke up Nancy took over as a manager while Sid Vicious began to tour on his own. However the two spent the majority of their time doing heroin after moving to New York City

Sid Vicious And Nancy’s Murder

On October 12, 1978 Sid Vicious would wake up from a drug stupor at the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan, New York to find Nancy Spungen dead on the floor.

The body of Nancy Spungen had a single stab wound to the stomach and is believed to have bled to death. Sid Vicious would give two accounts to police the first stating that he accidentally stabbed Nancy during a fight and in the second account that Nancy had fallen onto the knife.

Sid Vicious would be arrested and charged with the murder of Nancy Spungen however he was soon released on bail

Sid Vicious Arrest For Assault

On December 9, 1978 Sid Vicious was arrested for the assault of Todd Smith, the brother of musician Patti Smith. This time Sid Vicious would be sent to the notorious Rikers Island where he was forced to go through detox from heroin. Sid Vicious was back out on bail in February 1 1979

Sid Vicious Death

On the day he was released from Riker’s Island Sid Vicious attended a party that included his new girlfriend at her apartment, 63 Bank St. in New York City. Sometime during the night Sid Vicious would overdose from heroin and his mother would find his body the next day.

There has been some questions over the years whether or not Sid Vicious purposely overdose which is what his mother believed and was substantiated by a note he allegedly had on him

We had a death pact, and I have to keep my half of the bargain. Please bury me next to my baby. Bury me in my leather jacket, jeans and motorcycle boots. Goodbye

Who Really Killed Nancy Spungen

Over the years there has been a number of theories in who actually killed Nancy Spungen even though the majority believe Sid Vicious was responsible.

One of the theories is that Sid Vicious owed a lot of money to drug dealers in order to keep him and Nancy in heroin and they were responsible for her murder. A number of objects of worth were missing from the apartment

Rockets Redglare, an actor and stand up comedian apparently confessed to friends that he was responsible for the death of Nancy Spungen, Redglare apparently delivered drugs to Sid and Nancy’s hotel room the night of her death. Redglare would deny this to the press however and was known for exaggerating stories. Rockets believed a drug dealer he saw in the Chelsea hotel was responsible for the murder

Sid Vicious More News

In 1975, a 17-year-old Philly girl named Nancy Spungen dropped out of the University of Colorado and moved to New York City. She pushed her way in with the emerging punk crowd – meeting seminal rockers like Johnny Thunders and Cheetah Chrome. Spungen quickly established herself in the punk scene as a new kind of groupie, as punk journalist Legs McNeil told New YorkMagazine in 2008 – and she embodied the nastiest parts of the scene. “We were tired of being nice. It was like, fuck you,” McNeil said. “The left… invented that political-correctness stuff. Punk was supposed to piss off everybody and make people think.”

Though most found Spungen abrasive, one person didn’t seem to mind her crass exterior: Sid Vicious, the bassist for the Sex Pistols. The two met in London in 1977 and quickly became an item. The couple rattled around the U.K. and the United States – first with the Pistols and then, when the band broke up, just the two of them on their own

And then, on October 12th, 1978, 20-year-old Spungen bled to death on the bathroom floor of a room in the Chelsea Hotel in New York. Months later, while awaiting trial for her murder, Vicious died from an overdose. For many, it was the end of an era.

Born in the Philadelphia suburbs in 1958 to a middle-class family, her mother Deborah Spungen described Nancy as a difficult child. In a memoir written after her daughter’s death, And I Don’t Want To Live This Life: A Mother’s Story Of Her Daughter’s Murder, Deborah describes Nancy’s physical assaults, screaming tantrums and bullying her siblings.

At 11, Spungen was expelled from school and sent to a boarding school in Connecticut for children with special needs, from where she graduated at age 16, according to Philly.com. She also spent time in a mental institution and was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teen, according toNew York.Spungen attended the University of Colorado briefly before dropping out to go to New York City.

She arrived right as the punk movement was blowing up – and the heroin epidemic in New York City was white-hot.“She was blatantly honest about it: She brought drugs for the bands,” photographer Eileen Polk, who knew Spungen, told New York magazine. “In order to be a groupie you had to be tall and skinny and have fashionable clothes…. And then here comes Nancy. She’s not trying to be cute or charming. She wasn’t telling people she was a model or a dancer. She had mousy brown hair and she was a bit overweight. She basically said ‘Yeah, I’m a prostitute and I don’t care.’”

In 1977, Spungen followed Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan of the Heartbreakers to London. It was there that she met John Simon Ritchie, better known as Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious.

The Sex Pistols initially formed in 1972, but it wasn’t until 1975 – when their manager, Malcolm McLaren, found John Lydon, changed his name to Johnny Rotten and stuck him in the band – that the Pistols really took off. The following year they were signed to EMI.

In late 1976, they broke into the mainstream with their caustic hit, “Anarchy in the U.K.” A few months later, bassist Glen Matlock left the band after “clashing” with Johnny Rotten. So in February of 1977, John Ritchie, one of the group’s earlier fans, took the stage name Sid Vicious and joined the band – despite not knowing how to play the bass.

Vicious’ mother was a heroin addict, according to Rotten, and Sid seemed drawn to stronger personalities. “Deep down he was a shy person,” wrote Dennis Morris in Never Mind The Bollocks: A Photographic History of the Sex Pistols, as reported by People. “I think he was frightened of the audiences.”

Once Nancy Spungen and Sid Vicious met, they were inseparable. “Nancy…taught Sid all about sex and drugs and the lifestyle of a New York rocker,” wrote Malcolm McLaren on The Daily Beast in 2009. But the other members of the Sex Pistols hated Spungen – a woman viewed by even people who liked her as domineering and combative. Their contempt ran so so deep that they banned her from their 1978 tour, according to New York.

As the Heartbreakers tour manager Leee Childers said of Nancy in Legs McNeil’s seminal Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, “[S]he was a junkie, a drug supplier and an all-around lowlife. … She was a very, very, very, very, very, very bad influence on people who were already a mess. She was a troublemaker and a stirrer-upper.”

Sid Vicious was one of those people who was already a mess. Even the Sex Pistols’ official website acknowledges Vicious’ drug addiction hindered band, interrupting their 1978 tour that was already riddled with “in-fighting.” Spungen had fueled their mutual addictions – including, it would seem, to each other. As the Sex Pistols’ tour manager Nils Stevenson told People, Sid began to “dislike everything – except heroin and Nancy.” After a last performance in January 1978 in San Francisco, the Sex Pistols broke up.

On August 24th, 1978, Sid Vicious and Spungen moved into the Chelsea Hotel in New York City, a place that had housed the likes of Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Jackson Pollack, according to Sherill Tippins’Inside The Dream Palace: The Life And Times of New York’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel.

On the night of October 11th, “several visitors to the room saw Sid Vicious take as many as many as 30 tablets of Tuinal – a far larger dose of the barbiturate than most of us could survive, and one certain to put nearly anyone into a deep state of unconsciousness for hours, and he remained comatose for through the morning’s early hours” wrote Tippins.

According to New York magazine, the night of the murder went like this: At 2:30a.m, Spungen asked Rockets Redglare – a sometimes bodyguard for Vicious who also sold drugs, according to The New York Times – to get some Dilaudids, an opioid painkiller. Around 7:30a.m., “female moans” were heard from the room from other guest in the hotel. At 10a.m., Vicious called down to the front desk, asking for help. Nancy Spungen, who had been stabbed in the stomach with a knife, bled to death on the bathroom floor. She was 20 years old.

“Sid Vicious, who was found wandering the hallways in an agitated state, was arrested and charged with her murder,” according to the UK’s Independent. “Though he initially confessed to the crime, he later denied it, claiming he had been asleep when she died.”

Theories of who killed Spungen are still swirling to this day, and many suggest Sid Vicious was not responsible.

Some wonder her stabbing was a robbery or drug deal gone bad, according to New York, or perhaps that Spungen, with her flair for the dramatic, stabbed herself and Vicious wasn’t able to help her because he’d taken too many drugs. The 2009 documentary Who Killed Nancy? suggests that Vicious couldn’t have murdered her because he was “out cold” from his barbiturates.

That’s the view of the Sex Pistols former manager Malcolm McLaren, who was adamant in a piece in The Daily Beast that Sid Vicious would not have killed his girlfriend, unless her death was actually a “botched double suicide.” McLaren writes: “She was his first and only love of his life. … I am positive about Sid’s innocence.” McLaren notes how money was stolen from the room while “stupid, clumsy fool” Vicious was “passed out on the bed.”

One theory is that Rockets Redglare, the drug dealer who supplied the opiates that night, killed Spungen. According to author Phil Strongman in his book Pretty Vacant: A History of Punk, Spungen confronted Redglare when he tried to steal cash from their hotel room so he stabbed her in the stomach and split. “Noticing Sid flat out and grey on the bed, Redglare decided to help himself to a bit more of the couple’s cash,” Strongman writes. “Nancy saw the attempted theft and flew at him, nails flying – and copped a Bowie knife in her lower abdomen. Nancy slumped to the floor immediately. With no one standing in his way, Redglare took everything but pocket change and left behind what he believed to be two corpses.”

Strongman continues that in January of 1978, Redglare was heard confessing about the theft and murder at the punk rock club CBGBs. “Rockets Redglare casually admitted to several fellow drinkers that it was actually he who’d robbed and stabbed Nancy Spungen – and produced a handful of her blood-stained dollars to prove it,” Strongman wrote. (Redglare died in 2007.)

Continue Reading At Rolling Stone

Sid Vicious Videos

Frequently Asked Questions

Rigoberto Lopez Arrested For NYC Subway Murders

The New York Police Department (NYPD) have announced they have arrested and charged Rigoberto Lopez with the two murders that took place in the New York subway system. According to police reports Rigoberto Lopez was arrested at a homeless shelter where he was still armed with a knife. It is unknown at this time whether that knife was the one used during the four stabbings that left two people dead.

Who Is Rigoberto Lopez

Not a lot is known so far about Rigoberto Lopez as this is a breaking story. What is known is that Rigoberto Lopez is homeless and was living at a Brooklyn homeless shelter.

A variety of news sources online are reporting that Rigoberto Lopez who suffers from mental illness has confessed to the four stabbings that left two people dead.

According to police sources Rigoberto Lopez has been arrested before and has been convicted of assault and criminal contempt against his father. Apparently after Rigoberto Lopez asked his father for drug money he would be refused and Rigoberto would strike his father with a wooden stick. The father would get an order of protection against his son

Rigoberto Lopez would be arrested again the next month when he struck a police officer who was investigating a call that Rigoberto was harassing someone else who had an order of protection against him.

Rigoberto Lopez was last arrested in November when police stopped him after seeing him walking around with a large knife. After searching him they would find 48 bags of cocaine on him.

Rigoberto Lopez Subway Stabbings

Remember all of this is alleged as though Rigoberto Lopez has been arrested and reportedly confessed he has not been convicted on the charges

On Friday February 12, 2021 a sixty seven year old homeless man was sitting on his walker by the 181st St. stop was stabbed in the right knee and buttocks before Rigoberto Lopez fled

NYPD would find the body of a man on a subway train near the Far Rockaway-Mott Ave. station. The man was stabbed multiple times in the neck and chest

Two hours later a woman was stabbed multiple times near the Inwood/207th St. stop. She was transported to the hospital where she would die from her injuries.

The last person was stabbed multiple times in the back and neck while he slept at the 181st St./Fort Washington Ave. station just after midnight. The victim was able to find a security guard who immediately called for help.

All four stabbing took place along the A line of the New York Subway System

Rigoberto Lopez Videos

Rigoberto Lopez More News

A man arrested following a series of violent subway stabbings is being held without bail amid growing calls for action to stop a rising tide of violence on New York City’s subway system.

Rigoberto Lopez was ordered held without bail at his arraignment Monday morning in connection with four violent subway attacks.

Prosecutors say the 21-year-old man admitted to all four attacks and has a history of drug and assault arrests.

Lopez was taken into custody late Saturday and charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the stabbing deaths of two homeless people on an A train and a knife attack on two others at the 181st station in Washington Heights, where he was apprehended.

Detectives were able to track Lopez down using video surveillance.

He was found with bloody clothes and a knife which, according to investigators, Lopez himself identified as the murder weapon.

The NYPD has now assigned an extra 500 additional officers to the city’s subway system after a string of attacks in recent months has led to calls for increased police presence.

Mayor Bill de Blasio rode the downtown 5 train Monday night to assure riders the subways are safe. Of course, he was surrounded by police.

“I want people to know, we’re going to do whatever the hell it takes to keep subways safe,” de Blasio said.

However, transit officials say 1,000 more cops are needed.

According to the MTA, ridership is down 70 percent on subways and 50 percent on buses

https://abc7ny.com/a-train-stabbing-new-york-city-subway-nyc-rigoberto-lopez/10341557/

Adrian Sawyer Teen Killer Murders Best Friend

Adrian Sawyer was sixteen when he murdered his best friend in New York State. According to court documents Adrian Sawyer was at the home of the murder victim, Maverick Bowman, and when the fifteen year old fell asleep Adrian Sawyer would place a machete beside his head and take a photo which he sent to a friend. Sawyer would then stab the sleeping teen causing his death. After the murder this teen killer would pour gas over the victim and set him on fire. Adrian Sawyer would be sentenced to life in prison without parole for twenty years

Adrian Sawyer 2023 Information

DIN (Department Identification Number)	19D0014
Inmate Name	SAWYER, ADRIAN J
Sex	MALE
Date of Birth	05/15/2002
Race / Ethnicity	WHITE
Custody Status	IN CUSTODY
Housing / Releasing Facility	HUDSON
Date Received (Original)	02/27/2019
Date Received (Current)	02/27/2019
Admission Type	NEW COMMITMENT
County of Commitment	WASHINGTON

Adrian Sawyer Other News

A Ticonderoga teen who killed his friend last summer was sentenced to up to life in state prison Friday as he heard the victim’s mother describe how the murder had devastated her and her family.

The defendant, Adrian J. Sawyer, 16, angered Judge Kelly McKeighan during the proceeding when his response when asked if he had a statement about the killing of 15-year-old Maverick Bowman was, “I’m alright.” That prompted the judge to tell him that was the wrong thing to say.

McKeighan went on to lambaste Sawyer for his seeming lack of remorse, saying that his communication with others before and after the murder and attempts to deflect blame to Bowman “defies logic.”

He said Sawyer seemed to want to make his actions a social media event by sending at least one friend a video and pictures of him holding a machete next to a sleeping Bowman’s neck before the killing. He said Sawyer seemed to be trying to blame Bowman for hard feelings over a girl, showing intent and a lack of sorrow.

After the killing, Sawyer called friends for a ride home, and comments he made led police to check the Bowman home, where they found the dead teen.

“You planned this, you thought about it, you wanted the world to know,” McKeighan said.

The judge’s comments came after a sobbing Amber Pelerin, Bowman’s mother, told McKeighan and Sawyer about the devastating effects of Bowman’s death. Maverick’s younger brother has not been able to move on and enjoy any of the things he used to do with his older brother, like play football, while she frequently has nightmares.

She said her son Maverick had a bright future, with a very high IQ as a child, and loved to be outdoors and help his family and friends whenever needed.

She asked that Sawyer never be released from prison.

“Because of what Adrian did, we will never get to see Maverick again, hear him laugh or see what amazing things he could have done,” she said.

“He took my son’s life, and pretty much mine and my family’s,” she added.

The two teens were among a group that had been hanging out at the home, partying and working on vehicles, in the days and hours before the July 26 killing.

They were the last two at the home on county Route 2, Putnam, that is owned by Bowman’s family when Bowman went to sleep and Sawyer became homicidal for reasons that are unclear. The two were described as best friends and were classmates at Ticonderoga High School.

Pelerin and Washington County District Attorney Tony Jordan revealed information that hadn’t been previously released by police, including that Sawyer texted pictures to friends of him holding a machete.

After the killing, Sawyer poured fuel on Bowman’s body and started a small fire, “desecrating” the body, the judge pointed out.

Authorities have said the motive is unknown, although Sawyer had been upset about a conversation with a former girlfriend earlier in the night. Jordan said he believed Sawyer “created” the issue himself as an attempt at some sort of justification for what occurred, and that Sawyer’s “portrayal of this incident has not been accurate.”

Sawyer said the two teens smoked marijuana before the killing, but a drug test showed Bowman had not used the drug, Jordan noted.

“What he did was destroy two families with one incredibly horrific act,” Jordan said.

Jordan said Sawyer was close to Bowman’s family, and he had concerns that Sawyer showed no remorse for what he did. He said he showed no emotion the day of his arrest or at any court appearances.

“Maverick was asleep and completely defenseless,” Jordan said.

Sawyer’s lawyer, Marc Zuckerman, said Sawyer has been remorseful and was “very nervous and scared,” so he could not speak in court. His statement that he was “alright” simply meant that he had no desire to speak, not that he was actually alright under the circumstances, Zuckerman explained.

He said his client has a 61 IQ and a long documented history of mental illness, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

Zuckerman said the defense had a “viable” argument against the charges that Sawyer was under the influence of an “extreme emotional disturbance” at the time of the killing, but his client wanted to accept responsibility for what he did.

“He wanted to do that because he did not want to fight this case, deny his guilt in any way,” he said. “It was Adrian’s decision all along to not have a trial, not make the family of the victim go through an emotional trial.”

Bowman died from a knife wound to his neck that severed his jugular vein and carotid artery. Police initially believed the machete had been used to kill Bowman, but a review of the injuries by a forensic pathologist led to the conclusion that a serrated knife appeared to be the murder weapon.

Sawyer will have to serve at least 20 years before becoming eligible for parole. He will be housed in designated state prison units for teens until he turns 18.

https://poststar.com/news/local/teen-pleads-guilty-to-friend-s-murder/article_68309d73-8c83-50a2-9305-e76d6e65f4a7.html

Frequently Asked Questions

Adrian Sawyer Photos

Adrian Sawyer More News

A 16-year-old who killed his 15-year-old best friend by slicing his neck with a machete and then setting him on fire to cover it up was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in state prison.

Adrian J. Sawyer did not have much to say for himself in Washington County Court when Judge Kelly McKeighan declared his sentence

The mother of Maverick R. Bowman, Sawyer’s victim, said the January plea deal in which Sawyer pleaded guilty to second-degree murder is not enough for the teen who turned her life “upside down.”

“My son, for absolutely no reason, was brutally murdered while he was asleep,” said Bowman’s mother, Amber Pellerin, speaking between sobs. “My son was a loving, caring person who would have never done anything to Adrian. If you were having a bad day, my son would have done anything to make you laugh or smile.”

Judge McKeighan asked Sawyer if he would like to say anything to the family. Sawyer replied, “I’m alright,” angering McKeighan.

“That is the most incorrect statement I have ever heard,” McKeighan said. “It’s inexplicable, it defies logic.”

Bowman was killed on the early morning of July 26 in a second home owned by his family in Putnam. According to Washington County District Attorney Tony Jordan, the two Ticonderoga teens were hanging out in the garage there, tinkering with vehicles. At about 1 a.m., Bowman fell asleep in a chair in the house. While Bowman slept, Sawyer took Bowman’s cell phone and watched videos. At 3:35 a.m. when he sent a Snapchat video detailing what he planned to do with a machete. After that, Jordan said, Sawyer went to the garage, got some gasoline and ignited Bowman. At 3:55 a.m., he called someone to come and pick him up at the scene of the crime.

Sawyer was arrested later that day and was charged with second-degree murder and arson.

Bowman’s mother said her son was five days away from his 16th birthday and was looking forward to driving. But since his death, she can’t sleep, is plagued by nightmares and lost her job.

“Adrian is a selfish and disgusting excuse for a human being,” she said in her victim impact statement. “Why should he ever get out?”

District Attorney Jordan said there is not a sentence that is appropriate for the crime. He also said he found Sawyer’s demeanor disturbing.

“It was a deliberate act,” Jordan said. “And through the whole time, we have spent countless hours with Adrian, not once did he show remorse. On the day of his arrest, Ticonderoga police said he sat expressionless. That continues through to this day. He’s a danger to himself and others.”

Jordan told the judge that Sawyer should never be released. Still, McKeighan abided by the plea deal of a 20 years-to-life sentence, which included dropping the arson charge. Jordan also told Sawyer his crime was “unforgivable” and said he was troubled that Sawyer made it a “social media event.”

Sawyer’s attorney, Marc Zuckerman, said that Adrian Sawyer is remorseful. But with a recorded IQ of 61, he does not have the words to express himself. Zuckerman also said that Sawyer suffers from “extreme emotional distress” and is an “internal and shy person” who is nervous and scared.

“Actions speak louder than words,” Zuckerman said. “Adrian made the ultimate decision to waive his constitutional rights to a trial and instead plead guilty. He took full responsibility and wants to do that because he does not want to fight the case. He didn’t want to put the family through it.”

Zuckerman said he had a viable defense with two psychologists lined up to testify on behalf of Sawyer, who his attorney emphasized is only 16.

Jordan said the whole ordeal has devastated both the Sawyer and Bowman families.

“Usually, there is some feeling of satisfaction at the end of a case. We took a person who did something horrible and held them accountable,” Jordan said. “What struck all of us with this case, there is no good result. We are never going to know why he did what he did. We do know he destroyed two families with one incredibly horrific act. That alone keeps it from having any sense of satisfaction. It’s truly a sad day.”

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Teen-sentenced-for-murder-of-friend-13636740.php

Adrian Sawyer FAQ

Adrian Sawyer Now

Adrian Sawyer is currently incarcerated at the Hudson Facility

Adrian Sawyer Release Date

Adrian Sawyer is not eligible for release until 2038

Dylan Schumaker Teen Killer Murders 23 Month Boy

Dylan Schumaker is probably best known for crying in the courtroom that ended up on YouTube but the reason he was in that courtroom should be the focus. Dylan Schumaker was left to babysit his girlfriends young child and by the end of the night the child was dead. According to court documents Schumaker would fatally beat the child when he would not stop crying.

Dylan Schumaker would be arrested and convicted of the murder along with child abuse charges. When he was to be sentenced he allegedly told the guards that they should watch the performance he was going to put on in the courtroom. The rest of course is history on YouTube. This teen killer was sentenced to twenty five years to life in prison for the murder

Dylan Schumaker 2023 Information

DIN (Department Identification Number)	14B0189
Inmate Name	SCHUMAKER, DYLAN
Sex	MALE
Date of Birth	01/09/1997
Race / Ethnicity	WHITE
Custody Status	IN CUSTODY
Housing / Releasing Facility	CLINTON
Date Received (Original)	01/23/2014
Date Received (Current)	01/23/2014
Admission Type	NEW COMMITMENT
County of Commitment	ERIE

Aggregate Minimum Sentence	0018 Years, 00 Months, 00 Days
Aggregate Maximum Sentence	LIFE Years, 99 Months, 99 Days
Earliest Release Date	03/12/2031
Earliest Release Type	PAROLE ELIGIBILITY DATE
Parole Hearing Date	11/2030
Parole Hearing Type	INITIAL RELEASE APPEARANCE
Parole Eligibility Date	03/12/2031
Conditional Release Date	NONE
Maximum Expiration Date	LIFE

Dylan Schumaker Other News

A Springville teenager who fatally beat his girlfriend’s 23-month-old son told a judge Friday that he did not intend to kill the toddler.

“I never wanted to hurt Austin. I never wanted Austin to die,” Dylan Schumaker, 17, said in a tearful apology to his 19-year-old girlfriend in a Buffalo courtroom.

Jurors who convicted Dylan Schumaker of second-degree murder last month didn’t buy it.

Neither did State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller. He sentenced Dylan Schumaker to 25 years to life in prison, the maximum punishment.

“At 16 you knew right from wrong,” Boller told Schumaker, who turned 17 this week. “You knew it was wrong to keep punching his head.”

Dylan Schumaker previously testified he put a pillow on the back of Austin’s head and punched it to stop him from crying and waking his baby brother.

The March 19 attack occurred while he was baby-sitting Austin and Austin’s 3-month-old brother.

Dylan Schumaker lived with his mother, along with Ashlee Smith and her two sons, in his mother’s home on Cochran Avenue. He was 16 at the time of the attack. Neither of the children was his.

The judge called the trial testimony gut-wrenching. Witnesses described the attack and Austin’s extensive head injuries that led to brain bleeding and the toddler’s death.

The judge said the last minutes of Austin’s life must have been terrifying. “He loved you, he trusted you, and you betrayed him,” Boller said.

The judge questioned Dylan Schumaker’s testimony at trial that he did not intend to kill Austin or realize his actions could kill the toddler.

Boller called Dylan Schumaker “a manipulator and deceiver.”

The judge said he took note of a comment Schumaker made in a phone conversation with his mother last July while in the Erie County Holding Center awaiting trial.

“I’m a 16-year-old blond. Probably all I have to do is cry, and they’re going to feel sorry for me,” Dylan Schumaker told her, referring to the jury.

The judge also cited the 200 texts Schumaker sent as he baby-sat the two children while his girlfriend worked her night job at a Springville restaurant.

In those texts, the judge noted, Dylan Schumaker tried to set up a sexual tryst with a girl and sell drugs to his friends.

“But when the texting stopped, the beating started,” Boller said.

For a 17-year-old, Dylan Schumaker has caused so much pain and grief for so many people, the judge said. He said he received letters from 13 people describing how Schumaker’s crime impacted them.

“The night of March 19, my family’s life was decimated because this didn’t have to happen,” Michael Smith, Austin’s grandfather, told the judge in court, his voice breaking.

“He had numerous opportunities to get out” of the house and seek help, Smith said. “But he didn’t.”

Smith asked the judge to consider the family’s feelings in sentencing Dylan Schumaker.

“We’ll never get Austin back,” he said, crying. “A piece of our heart will always be missing.”

Joseph Terranova, Schumaker’s attorney, agreed with Smith.

“This didn’t have to happen,” Terranova told the judge. “If the Smith family hadn’t thrown Ashlee and her children out” of the house, “they wouldn’t have ended up at Dylan’s home,” with the children being baby-sat by a teenager who was unable to control his anger and ill-equipped to take care of them.

Doctors prescribed medicine for Dylan Schumaker to treat his anger and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but he chose not to take it, Schumaker said during the trial.

Terranova said the minimum sentence of 15 years to life would be a more reasonable punishment, given his client’s tough childhood, his remorse over Austin’s death and his inability to take care of children.

“What about the protection of the community?” the judge asked Terranova. “If he is released in 15 years, who’s to say it won’t happen again?”

The defense attorney said no one can predict what will happen, but he assured the judge that his client “is not a serial killer who will get out and want to kill another kid.”

“To blame anyone other than Dylan for what happened flies in the face of reality,” said homicide prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable.

Although Dylan Schumaker was inexperienced as a baby sitter, what he did to Austin is not what a normal 16-year-old would have done, she said.

By taking in Ashlee Smith and her children into his mother’s home, “I was trying to do what my father didn’t do – be there,” Schumaker told the judge.

Dylan Schumaker then turned to Ashlee Smith. “Ashlee, I’m sorry,” he said, crying as she and others started crying. “I never wanted to hurt Austin. I never wanted Austin to die. I don’t know why I didn’t go for help.”

He told the judge he did not have a good family life growing up, but he thanked his family members for attending the sentencing.

As he was brought into court for sentencing, Dylan Schumaker cried out, “I didn’t mean to hurt him. You know I loved Austin.”

During his trial, Dylan Schumaker told the jury that he slapped Austin’s face and spanked him when he spit out his food and used an obscenity. He also admitted he slammed the boy’s head on the floor while changing his diaper as the child tried to get up and that he later put a pillow over the back of his head and punched it three times because he was afraid that the boy would wake up his baby brother.

He said it was only the second time he had taken care of both the boys.

Dylan Schumaker Videos

Frequently Asked Questions

Dylan Schumaker Photos

dylan schumaker austin smith — Austin Smith

Dylan Schumaker Other News

A Springville teenager convicted of second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend’s toddler son last year was given the maximum penalty at his sentencing Friday morning.

Dylan Schumaker, 17, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the death of 23-month-old Austin Smith while babysitting the boy and his infant brother last March 19 while their mother, his girlfriend, was at work. Schumaker was convicted in a jury trial last month.

Smith was beaten on the head several times by Schumaker, according to prosecutors. They say he muffled the boy’s face with a pillow before striking him three times, trying to get him to stop crying.

According to a Buffalo News report, State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller cited 13 letters from witnesses and family members and called Dylan Schumaker “a manipulator and deceiver” before giving him the maximum sentence

https://news.wbfo.org/post/springville-teen-given-max-sentence-toddlers-death

Dylan Schumaker Case

Dylan Schumaker appeals from a judgment convicting him upon a jury verdict of murder in the second degree (Penal Law § 125.25[1] ), arising from the death of his girlfriend’s 23–month–old son. Defendant contends, inter alia, that the evidence is not legally sufficient to support the conviction and that the verdict is against the weight of the evidence. Although he concedes that his actions caused the victim’s death, defendant challenges the sufficiency and weight of the evidence with respect to whether he intentionally caused the victim’s death. We reject those challenges.

It is well settled that “[t]he standard for reviewing the legal sufficiency of evidence in a criminal case is whether ‘after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt’ “ (People v. Contes, 60 N.Y.2d 620, 621, quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, reh denied 444 U.S. 890). Consequently, we must “determine whether there is any valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences which could lead a rational person to the conclusion reached by the jury on the basis of the evidence at trial” (People v. Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d 490, 495).

Here, the testimony of the Medical Examiner established that the victim sustained ruptured blood vessels in his left ear and near his right eye, hemorrhages in his retina and perioptic nerve, and subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhaging. The Medical Examiner testified that the victim also had numerous contusions and abrasions on multiple areas of his torso, buttocks, scalp, face and neck. The Medical Examiner opined that the cause of the victim’s death was “diffuse axonal injury,” which resulted from shearing forces within the child’s brain caused by his head whipping violently back and forth, and that such a result is consistent with the blows that defendant admitted inflicting upon the child.

The Medical Examiner testified that the child’s injuries were not consistent with a slip and fall as defendant testified occurred, but instead were the result of “multiple impacts.” Other evidence, including text messages that Dylan Schumaker sent and his trial testimony, established that the child was initially injured before 5:00 p.m., and that defendant inflicted further injuries upon him over a period of several hours during the evening. Dylan Schumaker admitted hitting the victim several times, including backhanded smacks to his face, and slamming his head on the ground while changing a diaper, all of which culminated in defendant placing the victim on a bed with a pillow over him and repeatedly punching him in the head. The Medical Examiner testified that the “diffuse axonal injury” caused the victim’s death, and that the victim had “no prolonged survival [after he sustained that injury, but rather he] died soon thereafter, shortly thereafter.”

The evidence also established that Dylan Schumaker frequently stopped attacking the victim while he sent an ongoing series of text messages. At approximately 5:00 p.m., he told the victim’s mother that the victim had fallen, but for the next several hours he texted with her on that and other topics, flirted with a different young woman, and attempted to sell synthetic marihuana to a third person. Thus, the evidence is sufficient to establish that defendant spent the evening intermittently attacking the 23–month–old child while engaging in commercial and social activities, and then placed the victim on a bed and punched him repeatedly in the head through a pillow. “A jury is entitled to infer that a defendant intended the natural and probable consequences of his acts” (People v. Bueno, 18 NY3d 160, 169; see People v. Hayes, 163 A.D.2d 165, 166, affd 78 N.Y.2d 876; People v. Watson, 269 A.D.2d 755, 756, lv denied 95 N.Y.2d 806). We conclude that the evidence is legally sufficient to establish that Dylan Schumaker intended to cause the death of the victim (see generally Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d at 495).

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ny-supreme-court-appellate-division/1725764.html

Dylan Schumaker Fake News

CLAIM: American teenager who killed a Muslim refugee for raping his sister sentenced to prison

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. A viral video portraying a teenager sentenced to prison for killing a Muslim refugee is actually using footage from Dylan Schumaker’s trial, a teenager found guilty of murdering his girlfriend’s son in 2013.

THE FACTS: A video posted on Facebook by the Sarah Huckabee Sanders Fans Page does not show a teenager being sentenced to prison for killing a Muslim refugee.

The image shown in the video originates from the sentencing of Dylan Schumaker, a teenager who was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend’s 23-month-old son in 2013. Schumaker was given a life sentence for the murder in 2014.

https://apnews.com/article/2355980647

Dylan Schumaker FAQ

Dylan Schumaker Now

Dylan Schumaker is currently incarcerated at the Clinton Prison in New York State

Dylan Schumaker Release Date

Dylan Schumaker is serving a life sentence however he is eligible for parole in 2031

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.

Eric Smith Videos

Frequently Asked Questions

Eric Smith Now

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/