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Hunter Reeser Teen Killer Murders Grandma

Hunter Reeser was fourteen years old when he shot and killed his grandmother in Erie Pennsylvania. According to court documents Hunter Reeser who was dealing with mental health issues was upset with his grandmother as he did not want to attend a meeting at his school. Hunter Reeser would grab a gun and shoot his grandmother from the porch of the home into her car. This teen killer would ultimately plead guilty to third degree murder and would be sentenced to ten to twenty years in prison

Hunter Reeser 2023 Information

Parole Number:NT6130
Age: 17
Date of Birth: 06/15/2002
Race: WHITE
Height: 6′ 00″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: PINE GROVE
Permanent Location: PINE GROVE

Hunter Reeser Other News

One of the youngest defendants ever charged with homicide in Erie County pleaded guilty but mentally ill Friday to third-degree murder in his grandmother’s shooting death.

Hunter Reeser, now 16, will be sentenced March 7 before Erie County Judge Joseph M. Walsh, who also accepted Reeser’s plea.

Reeser pleaded guilty but mentally ill as part of a plea bargain with the Erie County District Attorney’s Office. The prosecution and defense agreed on a recommended maximum prison sentence of 20 years with a minimum sentence between seven and 10 years.

Walsh will decide whether to accept the recommended sentence and what minimum sentence to impose at Reeser’s sentencing hearing. The judge asked both sides to gather information about Reeser’s mental health from prison officials before the sentencing.

Reeser’s plea of guilty but mentally ill ensures that he will receive psychiatric treatment while he serves his prison sentence. The prosecution and defense stipulated that Hunter Reeser was mentally ill at the time of the slaying.

Reeser was 14 when he was charged with shooting his grandmother, 60-year-old Sandra Orton, as she sat in a vehicle waiting outside their Harborcreek Township home on Aug. 23, 2016.

Reeser’s court-appointed lawyer, James Pitonyak, has asked Walsh to give Reeser receive a minimum sentence of seven years in prison at the sentencing. In a court filing, Pitonyak wrote that Reeser’s chaotic childhood and extensive history of mental illness were mitigating factors Walsh should consider at the sentencing.

“The district attorney understood the mental health component here,” Pitonyak said after Friday’s hearing. “We were able to arrive at this resolution, which we think is fair under the circumstances.”

Reeser has already been held in the Erie County Prison without bond for about two and a half years while he awaited prosecution in the case.

Walsh previously ruled that the case against Reeser should proceed in adult court. The defense had asked Walsh to transfer the case into juvenile court, where Reeser could only be incarcerated until he turns 21.

A defense expert testified at a hearing on the request that Reeser’s grandparents were considering institutionalizing him because of his aggressive behavior shortly before the homicide. Reeser shows signs of paranoid schizophrenia and might be on the autism spectrum, the expert said at the hearing.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Sellers said Friday that the May hearing, also known as a decertification hearing, opened up “substantial defenses” for Reeser if he took the case to trial.

Reeser’s case was scheduled for trial in February.

“The decertification process ended up being a little bit of a double-edged sword” by offering possible mental-health defenses for Reeser, Sellers said.

Walsh also previously threw out Reeser’s recorded confession to police after he found that Reeser could not understand the consequences of giving the statement without a lawyer present.

State police said Reeser shot Orton from the porch of their Harborcreek residence while she sat in her vehicle waiting to take Reeser to a school meeting. Reeser used a rifle he took from a locked gun cabinet inside the residence by unscrewing the cabinet’s hinges and then hid the gun there after the shooting, investigators said.

Police said Reeser confessed to shooting Orton because he did not want to go to the school meeting.

Orton’s husband, Bob Orton, was present at Friday’s hearing but declined to comment. He is Reeser’s step-grandfather.

Reeser’s father and stepmother were also present at the hearing.

https://www.goerie.com/news/20190104/erie-area-teen-pleads-guilty-in-grandmothers-murder

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Hunter Reeser is currently incarcerated at the Pine Grove Facility in Pennsylvania

Hunter Reeser Release Date

Hunter Reeser is scheduled for release in 2038

Jamie Silvonek Teen Killer Murders Mother

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

Jamie Silvonek 2023 Information

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

Jamie Silvonek Other News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Jamie Silvonek is incarcerated at the Muncy Facility in Pennsylvania

Jamie Silvonek Release Date

Jamie Silvonek is not eligible for parole until 2050

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Andrew Wurst Teen Killer School Shooter

Andrew Wurst was responsible for the Parker Middle School dance shooting in Pennsylvania. According to court documents Andrew Wurst would walk into the facility A Nick’s Place, banquet hall, that was hosting a school dance for Parker Middle School. Wurst would open fire killing a man, and wounding three others including a teacher and two student. This teen killer would soon be apprehended, convicted and sentenced to sixty years in prison.

Andrew Wurst 2023 Information

Parole Number:EA5775
Age: 35
Date of Birth: 02/03/1984
Race: WHITE
Height: 5′ 10″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: FOREST
Permanent Location: FOREST
Committing County: ERIE

Andrew Wurst Other News

Andrew J. Wurst failed to convince an Erie County judge in 2016 that his sentence for the 1998 fatal shooting of a teacher should be shortened.

He has now taken his efforts to U.S. District Court in Erie, where he is making much the same argument he put forth in his unsuccessful appeal.

In a petition filed last week, Wurst again claimed that his sentence of 30 to 60 years in the death of science teacher John J. Gillette failed to take Wurst’s youth into consideration. Wurst was 14 when he killed Gillette and wounded two students at a middle-school dance near Edinboro on April 24, 1998.

Wurst is asking to be resentenced like Pennsylvania’s “juvenile lifers,” whose mandatory sentences of life without parole for murders committed before they turned 18 were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court five years ago.

“This Court should hold that Mr. Wurst’s sentence is unconstitutionally disproportionate because the sentencing judge failed to consider his youth and associated characteristic in determining the proper sentence,” Wurst wrote in the request, called a petition for habeas corpus.

But unlike the state’s juvenile lifers, Wurst did not receive a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Wurst will be eligible for parole on April 25, 2028, almost three months after his 44th birthday.

He pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and other charges in September 1999, avoiding the possibility of a first-degree murder conviction and a mandatory life sentence without parole.

Wurst made a similar request that was denied in Erie County Court in the summer of 2016. Erie County Judge William R. Cunningham wrote that Wurst “is not entitled to relief under these (juvenile lifer) cases since he was not sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.”

Wurst wrote in the new federal filing that Judge Michael M. Palmisano, who sentenced Wurst, “allowed the crime to overpower all other mitigating evidence of youth.” Cunningham ruled that Palmisano, now retired, took Wurst’s age and other factors into consideration in fashioning the sentence.

Now 33, Wurst is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Forest, near Marienville. He is representing himself in the petition.

The Erie County District Attorney’s Office will have an opportunity to respond to Wurst’s request in federal court.

https://www.goerie.com/news/20171227/andrew-wurst-asks-for-resentencing-in-1998-teacher-killing

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A 15-year-old Edinboro boy accused of killing a teacher at a junior high school dance last year pleaded guilty to third-degree murder yesterday, sparing himself the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.

Judge Michael Palmisano sentenced Andrew Wurst to a total of 30 to 60 years in prison on the murder charge and for attempted homicide, assault and weapons charges.

Wurst must serve at least 30 years before becoming eligible for parole.

He would have faced a mandatory life sentence if convicted of first-degree murder for the April 1998 death of teacher John Gillette, 48.

Wurst stood before the judge with closely-cropped hair and wearing green prison overalls, his mother at his side, as District Attorney Joe Conti asked questions to ensure they understood the plea agreement.

Wurst refused to meet the prosecutor’s eyes and answered each question with a near-inaudible “yes” or “no.” His mother, Cathy, also answered quietly. As in previous court appearances, Wurst displayed no emotion and appeared uninterested in the proceeding.

The teen-ager’s attorneys had planned an insanity defense. But they encouraged their client to agree to the guilty plea for fear jurors would not accept that Wurst was mentally ill.

“The only way he would have done better is if the jury would have found him insane, and insanity is a very difficult defense, especially in the tenor of today’s times with these shootings around the country,” defense attorney Philip Friedman said.

If jurors had rejected the insanity defense, Wurst’s attorneys had no other defense to offer, Friedman said.

“There’s just a lot of hostility out there. It’s very difficult for the average jury to excuse people’s behavior for these actions, so we have to take into account that climate when we make a decision like this,” Friedman said.

Gillette was killed when Wurst, then 14, opened fire at a dance for his eighth-grade class from James W. Parker Middle School at a banquet hall in Edinboro. He also wounded two students and held a gun to the principal’s head.

The shooting — which occurred within months of those involving students in Jonesboro, Ark., West Paducah, Ky., and Pearl, Miss. — stunned tiny Edinboro, a town of 7,000 that is home to Edinboro University and serves as a family vacation spot in northwestern Pennsylvania.

After Thursday’s hearing, Conti said the victims had approved of the plea agreement, which he said spared them the hardship of a trial.

Gillette’s wife, Debbie, and the other victims were in court.

None would comment afterward.

Attorney Charles Longo of Cleveland, who represented Debbie Gillette since shortly after the shooting, said she planned to file a civil lawsuit against the Wurst family and a landscaping business owned by the boy’s father, Jerome Wurst.

Longo said the Gillette family was neither happy about nor satisfied by Wurst’s guilty plea. “They’re able to accept it,” he said.

Wurst had been scheduled to go to trial Oct. 25 as an adult on a first-degree murder charge.

Under Pennsylvania law, Wurst could not have been sentenced to death because he was younger than 16 at the time of the shooting. Because of publicity about the case in Erie County, jurors for Wurst’s trial were to have been selected in Washington County, about 140 miles south of Erie.

In April, Palmisano ruled that Wurst should be tried as an adult following days of conflicting testimony from psychiatrists about the boy’s mental state.

“The evidence suggests the defendant made a conscious decision to arm himself with a deadly weapon and ammunition, after which he selected his victims and executed his plan,” the judge wrote at the time.

He added that “the evidence is insufficient to show that if the defendant is truly suffering from mental illness at this stage, he would be ostensibly cured and nondangerous upon his release from a juvenile facility.”

A month before the killing in Edinboro, Wurst told classmates he wanted to kill people and commit suicide.

Another classmate noticed that Wurst was becoming curt and unfriendly in the weeks before the shooting.

Palmisano recommended that Wurst begin his sentence in a separate unit at a state prison for inmates younger than 18 who have been convicted as adults. That unit is part of the state prison at Houtzdale, Clearfield County.

http://old.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19990910teacher1.asp

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Andrew Wurst is currently incarcerated at the Forest Facility

Andrew Wurst Release Date

Andrew Wurst first opportunity for release is in 2028

Brandon Olivieri Teen Killer Murders 2 Teenagers

Brandon Olivieri was sixteen when he was in an altercation with another youth that would end with two teenagers dead. According to court documents this teen killer was involved with a rival when a gun came into play and Olivieri would shoot and kill the rival and another bullet would strike and kill his friend,

Brandon Olivieri would receive a 37 year to life prison term for the first murder and up to four years for the accidental killing

Brandon Olivieri 2023 Information

Parole Number:NW9037
Age: 18
Date of Birth: 03/30/2001
Race: HISPANIC
Height: 5′ 09″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: HOUTZDALE

Brandon Olivieri Other News

A man who as a juvenile shot and killed two other boys in a squabble that ripped apart a South Philadelphia neighborhood has been sentenced to at least 37 years in prison.

Brandon Olivieri, now 18, shot a neighborhood rival Sal DiNubile during a struggle on the street Oct. 24, 2017. Olivieri also shot his own friend, Caleer Miller, during that struggle over the handgun.

Both victims were 16 years old at the time, as was Olivieri.

In May this year, Olivieri was convicted of first-degree murder for DiNubile’s killing and third-degree murder for Miller’s death.

At sentencing Monday, a judge gave Brandon Olivieri 35 years to life in prison for the first-degree charge and two to four years for the third-degree charge.

Olivieri tearfully surrendered to police three days after the shooting. Around the same time, an internal police bulletin with his name, photo and address was leaked to a local Facebook group. A few hours later, a gunman riddled Olivieri’s home with bullets.

Defense attorney James Lammendola said at the time that Olivieri’s parents were “scared out of their minds that their house was shot” and he also feared for their son’s safety.

Brandon Olivieri has spent much of his time in isolated confinement while imprisoned the last 21 months, according to the court docket.

The three-day trial ended May 17 after a jury deliberated for just three hours.

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Friends and relatives of two teens slain at 12th and Ritner Streets in 2017 might have used the convicted killer’s sentencing hearing Monday morning to close a chapter in a criminal case that attracted citywide attention and led to ongoing tensions in South Philadelphia.

But it quickly became apparent inside Courtroom 306 at the Stout Center for Criminal Justice that emotions surrounding the fatal shootings of Salvatore DiNubile and Caleer Miller remained raw — and their killer, Brandon Olivieri, added to the tension by speaking about the case for the first time and declaring that he was innocent.

“I should not be the one sitting here today,” Olivieri said. He did not elaborate, but his North Philadelphia lawyer, Todd Mosser, vowed to appeal.

The drama unfolded as Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara A. McDermott sentenced Olivieri to 37 years to life in prison in the crimes. And it was just one episode in a day that began with conflict emblematic of the discord that has dogged the case.

Early in the morning, before the boys’ friends and relatives tearfully delivered victim-impact statements, DiNubile’s father and others in the audience had to be temporarily removed from the courtroom after a shouting match erupted. Supporters of the DiNubiles called Olivieri’s parents “crumbs” who had “raised a drug-dealing murderer,” while the Olivieris pleaded with sheriffs to take action on what they called “terroristic threats” against them.

Once the hearing got underway, testimony by Olivieri and his parents elicited groans or barbs from the slain teens’ supporters.

McDermott, in imposing a sentence two years above the mandatory minimum, told Olivieri: “This is an example of what happens when you have a gun.” Olivieri did not receive the automatic life sentence typically imposed for the crimes because he committed them as a juvenile.

Miller’s mother, Aishah George, said afterward that she did not believe Olivieri’s claim of innocence, and that she “never” wants him to be released from prison. “Caleer can’t come back,” she said.

The hearing was the most recent example of how the killing has resulted in lingering fallout, particularly between friends and relatives of DiNubile and Olivieri.

The teens were students at different schools — DiNubile went to St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, Miller attended Mastery Charter School’s Thomas campus, and Olivieri went to Neumann Goretti High School — but their social circles at least loosely overlapped.

Olivieri was found guilty in May of shooting DiNubile on Oct. 24, 2017, after wandering the streets of South Philadelphia with Miller and other friends looking for a fight.

Prosecutors Matt Krouse and David Osborne said that when Olivieri encountered DiNubile at 12th and Ritner, near DiNubile family’s home, Olivieri pulled a gun because of a lingering feud fueled by Instagram. The two teens struggled over the weapon and three shots were fired, one striking DiNubile and one striking Miller by mistake.

A jury voted to convict Olivieri of first-degree murder for killing DiNubile and third-degree murder for killing Miller, as well as several related weapons counts.

When the proceedings Monday got underway, 14 people delivered victim impact statements remembering the slain teens.

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Brandon Olivieri is currently incarcerated at the Houtzdale Correctional Institute

Brandon Olivieri Release Date

Brandon Olivieri is serving a life sentence he is not eligible for parole until 2054

Maxwell Morton Teen Killer – Shoots Friend Takes A Selfie

Maxwell Morton was sixteen years old when he would shoot his friend and then take a selfie. According to court documents Maxwell Morton told police that he asked his friend Ryan Mangan to take a photo of him holding a gun, then the gun accidentally went off striking Ryan. Now instead of calling 911 like a normal person Maxwell Morton would take a selfie with the body and sending it online. This teen killer would be convicted of third degree murder and sentenced to thirty years in prison in Pennsylvania

Maxwell Morton 2023 Information

Parole Number:MZ7444
Age: 21
Date of Birth: 05/21/1998
Race: BLACK
Height: 5′ 05″
Gender: MALE
Citizenship: USA
Complexion: LIGHT
Current Location: PINE GROVE
Permanent Location: PINE GROVE
Committing County: WESTMORELAND

Maxwell Morton Other News

A selfie that shows Maxwell Morton smiling in front of the body of his friend, Ryan Mangan, was released into evidence at the young man’s murder trial Tuesday in Westmoreland County Court.

Morton, 18, of Jeannette, is accused of fatally shooting Mangan, 16, as they played video games on Feb. 4, 2015. The question of whether Morton intended to pull the trigger was addressed in opening statements Tuesday.

District Attorney John Peck argued that the shooting was premeditated. He said Morton’s actions and statements to police afterward proved that, while also showing a lack of remorse.

Defense attorney Pat Thomassey disagreed, saying the shooting was an accident and Mangan was Morton’s friend.

The mother of a boy in Wisconsin reported the selfie after it was sent to her son. That led police to Morton’s house, where he told police a little about what happened and where the gun was.

Morton originally told police that he and Mangan were playing with the weapon, and he wanted to take a picture looking down the barrel and he shot Mangan.

“He had a little smirk on his face and said, ‘I didn’t really care either,’” said Westmoreland County Detective James Williams, who interviewed Morton in the presence of his parents after the search and before Morton was arrested.

The conversation to which Williams testified was not recorded, and according to his police report, Morton originally said the shooting was an accident.

Testimony will continue Wednesday morning before Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio.

https://www.wtae.com/article/pennsylvania-attorney-general-says-woman-kept-sister-in-cage-vestaburg-washington-county/30537374

Maxwell Morton More News

An 18-year-old man who shot his 16-year-old friend two years ago while they played video games, then took a selfie of himself next to the victim, was found guilty Thursday of third-degree murder by a Westmoreland County jury.

“It was a difficult case because of what he did afterwards, in terms of the selfie and all of the other stuff,” said Maxwell Morton’s defense attorney, Pat Thomassey. “I give the jury credit. I think they came to a reasonable conclusion based upon all of the evidence they saw.”

Morton, of Jeannette, testified that he and Ryan Mangan had no issues between them, and he was having fun visiting Mangan’s home that day in February 2015.

Morton said the two were pretending to be rappers and imitating what they do in music videos when he saw a lump in a pillowcase, and Mangan pulled out a handgun. Morton testified that Mangan was waving the weapon around and pointed it at him, and Morton then wanted to handle the gun.

Morton told the jury that the clip was out of the firearm, and he didn’t think the weapon was loaded when he pointed it at Mangan and pulled the trigger. The gun fired once, hitting Mangan in the face, but Morton said he did not call 911, nor did he call his parents or ask neighbors for help, because he was afraid to tell anyone what happened.

Morton took a selfie of himself smiling next to Mangan and sent it via Snapchat to a teenager in another state. The teen’s parent reported the photo, and Jeannette police were notified of the shooting. The picture was introduced as evidence in the trial.

Dr. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist, testified that Mangan could have survived the shooting if he had received medical care. Instead, authorities said Morton posed for a selfie with his dying friend and then fled the house without seeking aid.

Morton was returned to the county prison after the verdict to await his sentencing date.

https://www.wtae.com/article/jeannette-shooting-death/8942697

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Maxwell Morton is currently incarcerated at the Pine Grove Facility in Pennsylvania

Maxwell Morton Release Date

Maxwell Morton release date is 2047 however he is eligible for parole in 2032

Maxwell Morton Other News

A Jeannette teen will serve at least 15 years in prison for shooting his best friend in the face, a crime he memorialized by taking a “selfie” with the victim’s body.

Maxwell Morton, who turns 19 this week, told a Westmoreland County judge Monday that he did not want to be remembered as a “savage” and conceded that the Feb. 4, 2015, shooting of 16-year-old Ryan Mangan in the bedroom of his Jeannette home was “messed up.”

“Sometimes sorry isn’t enough for people, but that’s all I have to give,” Morton said.

Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio sentenced Morton to serve 15 to 30 years in prison. A jury in February found him guilty of third-degree murder.

Prosecutors had charged Maxwell Morton with first-degree homicide, contending he intended to shoot Mangan as the teens fooled around with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun Mangan kept in his bedroom.

The judge noted Morton’s age and suggested that using his cellphone to take a photograph of himself smiling with Mangan’s body — he was slumped over a chair in the background with a bullet hole under his left eye — rather than call for help substantially altered the case.

“You look like a little boy to me, and now I am faced with sentencing you,” Bilik-DeFazio said. “The reality is this case would be very different but not for that photograph. No one will understand the thought process of taking that photo.”

It was the selfie that police used to link Maxwell Morton to the murder. Police said Morton took the gun and ran from Mangan’s home after the shooting and, later that night, bragged about it to a teen in Wisconsin via a video game system.

As proof of the murder, Maxwell Morton sent the teen the photograph of himself with the body through the social media app Snapchat. The teen preserved the photo and told his mother, who alerted the police.

Assistant District Attorney Tom Grace argued that Morton should receive a maximum sentence of up to 40 years. Grace said Morton has two prior convictions for assault as a juvenile and another violent incident that occurred after he was jailed for Mangan’s shooting.

But Grace said it was the selfie the judge should focus on in determining the sentence.

“When I saw this photograph with the victim lying dead and slumped on a chair and the defendant smiling ear-to-ear, that speaks volumes about his character,” Grace said.

Defense attorney Pat Thomassey argued at trial that the shooting was an accident and that neither teen had malice toward the other. On Monday, Thomassey told the judge that Mangan and his parents were partially at fault for the murder. It was Mangan’s gun — one of several he had possession of — and his parent’s failure to know about the weapons that led to the shooting, Thomassey said.

“There is a lot of blame to go around in this case. I would know if there were guns in my house, and these parents didn’t know,” Thomassey said. “What this is is two kids fooling around with guns. If Maxwell didn’t panic and didn’t do the stupid things he did, called 911, he probably doesn’t even get charged.”

The teens were classmates in the Jeannette school district. At the time of the shooting, they attended Agape, a day treatment center and alternative school for troubled youth.

Mangan’s parents told the judge they were devastated by their son’s death and said they will be unable to forgive Morton for the killing.

“I have no sympathy for the devil that took my son’s life away from me. I hope he … burns in hell for eternity,” said George Mangan, the victim’s father.

Morton’s parents described their son as a young man who has struggled with racism but had dreams to attend college.

“This is just tragic,” said his mother, Honey Morton. “These two lives were just destroyed.”