Teen Killers | My Crime Library

Tanaya Lewis Teen Killer Stabs Classmate To Death

Tanaya Lewis was seventeen years old when she stabbed a fellow classmate in Michigan. According to court documents Tanaya Lewis and the victim were arguing about a fellow classmate that both young women had dated. This teen killer would chase after the victim and would stab her twice in the chest before bystanders would intervene. Unfortunately the victim would be raced to the hospital where she would die during surgery. Tanaya Lewis would plead no contest to murder and would be sentenced to twenty seven years in prison

Tanaya Lewis 2023 Information

Tanaya Lewis was sentenced in September 2020 and has yet been entered into the Michigan Department Of Corrections

Tanaya Lewis Other News

The young woman who was charged with stabbing a classmate to death at Warren Fitzgerald High School has pleaded no contest.

In a pretrial conference on Wednesday, Tanaya Lewis entered the plea in Macomb County Circuit Court to one count of premeditated, first-degree murder in the September 2018 death of 16-year-old Danyna Gibson.

Lewis will be sentenced by Judge Kathryn A. Viviano on Sept. 16, four days after the two-year anniversary of Gibson’s death.

“There are specific rules for no contest, nolo contendere pleas, and she fit within that category, so that’s why that was done,” said Mark L. Brown, Lewis’ attorney.

Authorities allege Lewis brought a steak knife to school on Sept. 12, 2018, and stabbed Gibson with it during class in front of 20 witnesses. The girls were described by police as straight-A students who had apparently argued and texted each over a student, “Evan,” whom both had dated.

Warren Police Detective James Twardesky testified in 2019 that during initial questioning about the incident, Lewis said of Gibson, “I don’t like her … I hate her.”

Twardesky testified Lewis described Evan, a classmate, as the “love of her life” and said they had broken up over the summer. But the pair were working on their relationship and Gibson “was ruining everything.”

Witnesses told police Lewis smiled and laughed as she chased Gibson with the knife.

Gibson, who died during surgery from two stab wounds in the chest, was a National Honor Society student and active on the school’s cross country team, student council, robotics club, color guard and marching band.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2020/08/12/woman-pleads-no-contest-warren-fitzgerald-classmates-stabbing-death/3360071001/

Tanaya Lewis Other News

A little more than two years after she stabbed one of her classmates to death at Fitzgerald High School in Warren, Tanaya Lewis was sentenced to at least 27 years in prison Wednesday. Lewis appeared before Judge Kathryn Viviano in 16th Circuit Court to receive her sentence after she pleaded no contest last month to first-degree murder.

Prior to sentencing, Lewis addressed the court and gave a tearful speech in which she apologized for what happened and said she wished she could take back the stabbing.

“I have nightmares about it. I accept my punishment,” Lewis said while crying before later adding “No amount of apologies will take it back.”

She added that she hopes one day her victim’s family will forgive her.

Viviano said the Lewis’s pre-sentencing report was unique because there was nothing in it to explain how the stabbing took place or why Lewis would act that way. The report gave Viviano hope that Lewis will be able to turn her life around and be rehabilitated during her prison sentence. Viviano then issued the sentence that comes with a maximum of 40 years in prison.

Lewis was convicted of murder after she stabbed 16-year-old Danyna Gibson to death during a school fight on Sept. 12, 2018. Witnesses described a scene in which Lewis yelled “I’m going to kill you” while laughing and chasing Gibson with a steak knife before actually stabbing Gibson. A teacher then pushed Lewis out of the classroom, but it was too late.

The fight started between the two girls over a boy who was in their school.

Family members for Gibson also spoke prior to sentencing and expressed the pain they feel by not having Danyna in their lives.

Lewis was deemed competent to stand trial in late 2018, but the trial was repeatedly delayed before she entered her plea last month. As part of the sentencing, Lewis was ordered to have no contact with Gibson’s family and to pay fines. She was given credit for 735 days served, meaning she will be eligible to be released in 2045.

https://www.mlive.com/crime/2020/09/teen-who-stabbed-classmate-to-death-at-school-sentenced-to-27-years-in-prison.html

Tanaya Lewis Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcIUGGhLatk

Morgan Leppert Teen Killer Murders Elderly Man

Morgan Leppert was fifteen years old when she murdered an elderly man in Florida. According to court documents Morgan started to date a much older man and needless to say her father was not impressed. The couple decided to run away by stealing the vehicle of an elderly man. However that plan quickly went out the window as the robbery turned into a murder. Once arrested the older boyfriend quickly turned against Morgan to avoid the death penalty. This teen killer would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no parole

Morgan Leppert 2023 Information

DC Number:	V33819
Name:	LEPPERT, MORGAN A
Race:	WHITE
Sex:	FEMALE
Birth Date:	01/12/1993
Initial Receipt Date:	10/01/2009
Current Facility:	FL.WOMENS RECPN.CTR
Current Custody:	CLOSE
Current Release Date:	SENTENCED TO LIFE

Morgan Leppert Other News

Morgan Leppert accused in the brutal murder of a Putnam County man in 2009 was re-sentenced this week to life with parole.

Leppert, the self-described “blue-eyed devil,” had been sentenced to life without parole in the murder of 66-year-old James Stewart.

She was 15 at the time, and she and her boyfriend, Toby Lowry, killed the disabled man and stole his car.

Lowry pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty.

Morgan was tried and convicted, but under the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that teens under the age of 18 cannot be sentenced to life without parole she was eligible for a re-sentencing hearing.

The judge gave her life with parole chances. Her case will be reviewed in 25 years.

Morgan Leppert More News

Viewers heard the chilling laughter of child murderer Morgan Leppert in police interview tapes from ITV documentary Children Who Kill. The show saw presenter Susanna Reid meet Leppert, who was labelled the ‘blue eyed devil’ aged 15 when she was convicted of the murder of an elderly disabled man back in 2008. The 62-year-old man named James Stewart, was stabbed multiple times in his Florida home with metal rods and a knife, before being suffocated with a plastic bag by the teenager and her 22-year-old boyfriend Toby Lee Lowry.

Susanna met Morgan on the show as she serves a life sentence without parole, where she states how she was blinded by the relationship with her boyfriend. Asked what she’d say to her 15-year-old self, Morgan said: ‘I wish I wasn’t so naïve and gullible. I wish I could have listened. It was like a dream. It was like every girl’s dream where you have a guy and I was the last man on earth I thought he was going to be with.

He turned out be a monster. He took my life away from me. ‘What stopped me running away from him? I was scared of getting killed, so I let him do what he did because I was scared of him. I wish I was smart enough then like I am now.’

The interview was interspersed with old police interview tapes, where teenage Morgan can be seen chuckling as she confirms her boyfriend is 22

Asked about the age gap at the time, Morgan said: ‘He told me he was going to do whatever he had to just to be with me. But I didn’t know he was going to take it that far.’

Her boyfriend escaped the death penalty and received the same life sentence as his 15-year-old girlfriend, with Morgan fighting back the tears in her taped audio confession.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/02/16/teenage-killer-morgan-leppert-laughs-disturbing-police-tapes-admits-murdering-disabled-elderly-man-7317780/

Morgan Leppert Videos

Morgan Leppert More News

A tearful apology and years of good behavior behind bars weren’t enough to change a life sentence for Morgan Amanda Leppert Wednesday in Putnam County.

In a new sentencing, Circuit Judge Patti Christensen still gave the 23-year-old a life term for killing a 66-year-old Melrose man when she was 15.

“I regret every one of those choices we made that night,” Leppert said, also referring to her then-boyfriend Toby Lee Lowry.

“I hope that one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me,” she said, reading from a lined sheet of notebook paper, her hands sometimes trembling.

The letter was intended in part for the family of James Thomas Stewart, the victim who was beaten, stabbed and suffocated in 2008 so Leppert and her 22-year-old boyfriend could steal his truck and leave Florida. None of Stewart’s family attended the hearing.

Christensen said she had no choice under the law but to give the life sentence in the case because Leppert intended to kill Stewart.

Lowry, 30, also previously agreed to a life sentence in order to avoid the death penalty.

Leppert’s case was eligible for review after a Florida Supreme Court decision last year that juveniles involved in a killing cannot be sentenced to life without being given special consideration. She was sentenced to life in 2009.

“I feel constrained that I have to do this,” Christensen said Wednesday.

Stewart, who was born without hands, had been dead for days when his body was found. During the attack at his home, Stewart was having difficulty breathing, Christensen said, recounting what Leppert told detectives at the time.

He asked Leppert and Lowry, “Why are y’all going to kill me?”

Christensen said that was convincing of Leppert’s involvement. Then Leppert was told to find a plastic bag to suffocate the former commercial fisherman.

“At that point there was only one reason to get that bag,” the judge said.

Members of Leppert’s family and other supporters were the only others in the courtroom. Leppert, in a blue prison uniform and shackles teared up and at one point buried her head in one hand after Christensen read the sentence.

Her supporters declined to comment after the hearing that took less than 30 minutes.

Leppert also was sentenced to 50 years each on convictions of other charges of burglary with battery and robbery with a deadly weapon.

Christensen said Leppert’s sentence on the murder charge will be up for review in 25 years.

She noted that Leppert had earned her high school equivalency and a cosmetology certificate while in prison and urged her to continue good behavior to help with that review.

“Be a good citizen in prison,” the judge said.

Leppert and Lowry were caught in Texas about a week after killing Stewart when she was recognized from a nationwide Amber Alert.

In earlier hearings to determine what the sentence will be, Leppert’s attorney argued that the teen was under the influence of her 22-year-old boyfriend and that she was immature and highly submissive. She had no prior criminal history.

“I wish I never ran away with him.” Leppert said in her letter.

She also was pregnant when she went to prison but believed she miscarried, her attorney, Valarie Linnen, said.

Prosecutor Chris France argued in the previous hearings that Leppert was the one in charge, based on observations of a homeless hitchhiker she and Lowry picked up after the murder and who was with them for days. Robert Bruckner said Leppert hit Lowry during arguments and that Lowry was docile around her.

When Morgan Leppert arrived at Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, she became Florida’s youngest female prison inmate.

Linnen said she will file an appeal.

https://www.jacksonville.com/article/20160608/NEWS/801249248

Morgan Leppert Photos

Frequently Asked Questions

Morgan Leppert Now

Morgan Leppert is currently incarcerated at the Florida Women’s Reception Center

Morgan Leppert Release Date

Morgan Leppert is serving life without parole

William Lembcke Teen Killer Murders Entire Family

William Lembcke was sixteen years old when he killed his entire family in December 2000. According to court documents William Lembcke was caught videotaping his sister changing by his father and he grabbed a gun and murdered his parents and two siblings.

After the murders William Lembcke would put the bodies of family into a truck and would throw them out later in a ditch. After police began to investigate this teen killer was soon arrested and charged with the four murders. William Lembcke was sentenced to life in prison without parole

William Lembcke 2023 Information

William Lembcke – Current Facility – Washington State Penitentiary

William Lembcke Other News

A teenager convicted of killing four members of his family was sentenced yesterday to life in prison without parole. William Lembcke, 16, was convicted earlier yesterday of four counts of aggravated-first-degree murder in the Christmas-week shooting deaths of his parents, his 18-year-old sister and his 11-year-old brother. Jurors deliberated less than two hours. Stevens County Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson called Lembcke “a monster” as he handed down the sentence.

The only penalties for aggravated murder are life in prison without parole or execution, but state law does not allow execution of people under 18. Kristianson also assessed Lembcke more than $15,500 in lawyer fees and court costs. The bodies of Robert and Diana Lembcke and their children, Jolene and Wesley, were found along a rural road days after the shooting at the family home in Addy, about 60 miles north of Spokane. Lembcke admitted sexually molesting his sister’s body, police testified. At the courthouse yesterday, family members — including the defendant’s only surviving sibling, 24-year-old Clinton Lembcke, who was not at home when the shootings occurred last Dec. 23 — broke down in tears when the verdict was read.

William Lembcke showed little emotion during most of the proceedings. But he sobbed openly during the sentencing process when an aunt, Pamela Ham, told him — and the court — that he’d had a loving mother and hard-working father and didn’t know what he’d given up. Relatives would not talk to reporters afterward. Deputy County Prosecutor David Bruneau called the verdict and sentence gratifying. He criticized defense attempts to portray Lembcke as mentally ill. “When you have a defendant whose back’s against the wall, it’s not unusual for them to resort to this sort of defense,” he told reporters. “You just hope the jury has the sense to see it for what it really is, and that is a bunch of rubbish.”

Defense lawyer Patty St. Clair said it is a tragedy to send a juvenile into the adult prison system. She said Lembcke wanted his family to know that he was sorry, and added that he has been emotionally distraught every time she has visited him in jail. The defense sought conviction on the lesser charge of second-degree murder, arguing that Lembcke suffered diminished mental capacity at the time of the murders. In closing arguments, Bruneau characterized the teen as a selfish, cold-blooded killer who spent the days after the attack partying with friends.

Defense lawyer Paul Wasson urged conviction on the lesser charge of second-degree murder, saying Lembcke was a troubled teen from a dysfunctional family. Wasson relied heavily on testimony from the key defense witness, psychiatrist Dr. Alan Unis, who attributed the teen’s mental state to a traumatic childhood. Bruneau said Lembcke’s actions showed premeditation — loading a semiautomatic rifle and lying in wait while his father showered and retrieving a different weapon to kill his mother, who used a wheelchair because of multiple sclerosis.

https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Teenager-gets-life-in-prison-for-killing-family-1063985.php

William Lembcke Other News

William Lembcke is a troubled child who was tormented by a dysfunctional home life, his attorney told jurors as trial began Monday for the teen-ager accused of killing four family members.

A quick succession of witnesses – including an older brother – testified after the jury heard opening statements in the trial that is expected to last a week.

Lembcke, 16, faces four counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of his parents, older sister and 11-year-old brother Dec. 23.

If convicted, Lembcke will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. State law doesn’t allow people younger than 18 to be executed.

Court documents indicated the killings occurred after a confrontation over Lembcke’s secret videotaping of his 18-year-old sister in the shower.

Lembcke’s court-appointed lawyer, Patty St. Clair, said Lembcke committed the crimes, but asked the jury to reach a lesser verdict of second-degree murder because of his mental state.

St. Clair said an expert psychologist would testify Lembcke suffered from a “dissociated state with diminished mental capacity” at the time of the killings.

Prosecutors told the jury Lembcke carefully planned the Dec. 23 murders and spent the following days hiding the bodies, partying and playing Nintendo with friends.

Older brother Clint, 24, told the jury that William lied to him and other family members about the murders before his arrest. Clint was not living in the family’s home at the time of the killings.

Deputy Stevens County Prosecutor David Bruneau alleges Lembcke tried to cover up the crimes by painting over bloodstains and claiming the victims were visiting a sick relative in California.

Defense attorneys tried unsuccessfully to have Lembcke’s confession and most of the evidence against him thrown out on grounds that he was mentally incompetent when he consented to searches and admitted guilt.

Prosecutors contend Lembcke had been disciplined the night before the slayings for secretly videotaping sister, Jolene, while she undressed and showered.

Lembcke told authorities he shot his sister, 11-year-old brother Wesley and parents Robert and Diana because his father yelled at him for not helping gather firewood.

Although Lembcke apparently didn’t tell detectives about the dispute over the videotape, court documents say he admitted having sex with his sister after killing her.

Her body was nude from the waist down when sheriff’s deputies found it in a roadside ditch with the other victims, following directions William Lembcke reportedly gave after confessing

William Lembcke Photos

Frequently Asked Questions

Jeremy Lee Teen Killer Murders Pregnant Woman

Jeremy Lee was sixteen years old when he helped murder a pregnant woman in Michigan. According to authorities Jeremy Lee and Jacob Barnes would abduct the pregnant woman, bring her to an abandoned building where she was beaten and set on fire. The teen killer would be sentenced to twenty five to sixty years in prison. Jacob Barnes was sentenced to life in prison without parole

Jeremy Lee 2023 Information

jeremy lee teen killer photos 1200x900 1

MDOC Number:356083

SID Number:5341242T

Name:JEREMY LEE

Racial Identification:White

Gender:Male

Hair:Brown

Eyes:Hazel

Height:6′ 0″

Weight:180 lbs.

Date of Birth:08/24/2000

Current Status: Prisoner

Earliest Release Date: 09/29/2041

Assigned Location: Thumb Correctional Facility

Maximum Discharge Date: 09/29/2076

Jeremy Lee More News

Jeremy Lee was sentenced Monday to 25-60 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge for the murder of a 29-year-old Melvindale woman.

Amanda Lynn Benton was reported missing Sept. 28, 2016. She was found dead two days later in a vacant home on Vanderbilt Street near West End Street in Southwest Detroit. Lee was sentenced Monday morning by Judge Thomas Cameron.

“This was a senseless and brutal murder where you assaulted and strangled a pregnant woman, threw her in the trunk of a car. You took her to an abandoned building and you set her on fire — her and her unborn child,” said Cameron before he handed down the sentencing.

Lee’s attorney did argue for a possible lighter sentencing because, he said, investigators would not have found Benton’s body if it weren’t for information they got from Lee.

Benton’s mother and father both gave emotional statements in court before the sentencing. They recalled Amanda as a giving person and loving mother of four boys.

Lee, 16, said he did not want to give a statement in court before he learned he would spend at least the next 25 years in prison.

Lee and 23-year-old Jacob Barnes were arrested in September and originally charged with felony murder, first-degree murder, assault of a pregnant individual, intentionally causing death of a fetus and mutilation of a dead body. But Lee pleaded guilty to second degree murder and the rest of the charges were dismissed. Barnes is scheduled to go to trial in May.

Both Barnes and Lee first pleaded not guilty to the charges and were not granted bond. Lee has been held at a juvenile detention facility while Barnes is being held in the Wayne County Jail.

Barnes also was given a habitual offender fourth offense notice because of prior convictions, which holds a mandatory 25-year sentence. The maximum sentence is life, or a lesser term because of the prior convictions.

According to authorities, Barnes and Lee fatally assaulted Benton at Woodmere and Cabot streets. She was beaten in the head, neck and abdomen, before they put her in the trunk of her car and drove to the vacant house on Vanderbilt Street where they allegedly set her body on fire, officials said.

Police said the men drove off in her car and left it in southwest Detroit.

Family members say Benton was battling addiction and that she was killed over a car.

“My daughter had some demons she was fighting,” Tom Benton, Amanda’s father, said. “She was turned away from so many different rehabs because she didn’t have the right insurance or enough money.”

Family members said Amanda was trying to kick the habit.

Florine Harper, Benton’s mother, said she was killed over a Dodge Neon. She also said that Amanda was burned alive.

“How can someone so young be so evil?” Tom Benton said. “They tortured my daughter.”

Jeremy Lee Other News

The elder accomplice in the murder of a five-month-pregnant Melvindale mother of four, who went missing and was later found dead, beaten and burned in an abandoned Detroit house, was sentenced to life in prison Thursday.

Jacob P. Barnes Jr., who killed 27-year-old Amanda L. Benton of Melvindale, has been jailed since his arrest last September

A jury on found Barnes guilty of felony murder, first-degree murder, assault causing miscarriage, mutilation of a body and committing a grossly negligent act causing miscarriage. He will not be eligible for parole.

Investigators believe Barnes and 16-year-old Jeremy Lee of Detroit, who previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 25- to 60-year- sentence, fatally beat Benton, paced her body in the trunk of her Dodge Neon, drove to an abandoned house in Southwest Detroit and lit Benton’s remains on fire.

Lee was tried as an adult.

Detroit police discovered Benton’s body and arrested the suspects Sept. 30, two days after Benton’s family reported her missing.

https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2017/06/man_sentenced_to_life_for_murd.html

Jeremy Lee Videos

Frequently Asked Questions

Jeremy Lee Now

Jeremy Lee is currently incarcerated at the Thumbs Correctional Facility

Jeremy Lee Release Date

Jeremy Lee first chance at release is in 2041

Jacob LaRosa Teen Killer Murders Elderly Woman

Jacob LaRosa was fifteen years old when he murdered an elderly woman. According to court documents Jacob LaRosa broke into the home of the ninety three year old woman and would end up fatally beating her to death with a flashlight.

This teen killer would be charged with burglary, attempted rape, murder and aggravated robbery. Jacob LaRosa would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole

Jacob LaRosa 2023 Information

Number A753938

DOB 07/27/1999

Gender Male

Race White

Admission Date 10/19/2018

Status INCARCERATED

Institution Marion Correctional Institution

Jacob LaRosa Other News

Jacob LaRosa, 20, who was sent to adult prison a year ago for killing his elderly Niles neighbor in 2015, is asking the 11th District Court of Appeals to reverse his conviction and sentencing.

Oral arguments were given Tuesday in the 11th District Court of Appeals the case. LaRosa of Niles was 15 when he killed Marie Belcastro, 94, in her Cherry Street home.

The appeal seeks to reverse his life-without-parole sentence from Trumbull County Common Pleas Court and the decision of a Trumbull County Juvenile Court judge to transfer his case from juvenile to adult court.

Attorney Lynn Maro argued Tuesday and in her filings that Juvenile Court Judge Sandra Stabile Harwood transferred the case to adult court despite evidence that LaRosa was amenable to treatment.

“Multiple doctors provided testimony that there were treatment options and rehabilitation options available that had not been tried with Jacob,” Maro said. “Testimony and evidence confirmed improvement and behavior and maturity in the three years Jacob was incarcerated while awaiting trial. Yet, the trial court’s sentence foreclosed the possibility of change and rehabilitation.”

After the case was transferred to adult court, Common Pleas Judge W. Wyatt McKay decided LaRosa’s sentence after LaRosa pleaded no contest to aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and attempted rape.

Maro gave a history of LaRosa’s developmental difficulties as a boy, saying he had an “extremely low” IQ of 64 at age 8 and had started receiving counseling. He was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, oppositional-defiant disorder and other disorders by age 9.

An older sister also was in counseling by age 14 and “explained how dysfunctional and abusive the family truly was,” Maro’s filing says.

She quoted from the testimony of Dr. Thomas Gazley, who concluded during testimony that LaRosa “was not emotionally, physically or psychologically mature enough for transfer to adult court.”

Ashleigh Musick, Trumbull County assistant prosecutor, spoke at the hearing, saying testimony in juvenile court indicated that LaRosa was “offered almost every possible opportunity for rehabilitation and failed each and every step of the way.”

Two of three expert witnesses testified that LaRosa “failed to respond to multiple interventions.”

One of the three appeals judges, Mary Jane Trapp, asked Musick about information that LaRosa’s parents had not taken him to some of the treatment programs. Musick replied that this might account for “part of why he did not attend,” but, “He had gotten kicked out of several of the (treatment) programs, despite numerous efforts.”

Musick added, “His mother also had brought him to juvenile court, asking, begging for help.”

A ruling in the case will come later.

Jacob LaRosa Videos

Jacob LaRosa Photos

Jacob LaRosa Other News

A Niles man who was just 15 years old when he killed his 94-year-old neighbor will remain in prison after an appeals court ruled Tuesday to uphold his conviction.

Attorneys for Jacob Larosa, who is now 20, had been asking that his conviction for murdering Marie Belcastro be overturned on the grounds that a juvenile court should have heard his case.

On Tuesday, the 11th District Court of Appeals ruled against Larosa’s motion to have his conviction overturned.

Larosa pleaded no contest and was found guilty of aggravated murder, attempted rape, and theft for breaking into Belcastro’s home, attempting to rape her and beating her to death with a flashlight.

Larosa was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole

https://www.wfmj.com/story/41592078/appeals-court-upholds-conviction-for-jacob-larosa