by Patrick H. Moore
We’re all painfully aware of the need for absolute accuracy in many of our endless interactions with modern technology. If you forget your password or type it in wrong, you will not get into your Ameritrade account. If you’re working on a Word doc and inadvertently strike the wrong key, your document is liable to go into convulsions or, in some cases, vanish completely. Of course, we do have two sanity saving technological safety valves, or else we’d all eventually go mad. When googling, caps or lower case entries make absolutely no difference and the same goes for typing in email addresses. Whew!
This need for accuracy often doesn’t transfer over into the non-technological world. For example, when driving – unless you’re unlucky enough to be victimized by a speed trap – you can generally go 10 miles or so over the speed limit without getting pulled over. When cooking, some of the best cooks play it by ear, eyeballing the ingredients and adding pinches of this and that, playing it fast and loose with little fear of botching the dish.
The general area of criminal charges is notoriously sloppy. Upon being arrested, defendants regularly get the book thrown at them – a laundry list of felonies of decreasing seriousness with often a few misdemeanors tossed in for good measure.
No doubt many a defendant has gnashed his or her teeth in frustration upon discovering the litany of charges they face for what they probably assumed was a fairly basic crime. Now, however, it’s reported that a Massachusetts man has agreed to plead guilty to murdering his mother, but only if his indictment is superseded to include extra charges for him murdering his mother’s cats, thus rendering it dead-on accurate.
Steven Hoffer of the Huntington Post writes:
A Massachusetts man who confessed to killing his mother and her two cats says he will change his plea to guilty, but only if the deceased cats are added to the indictment.
Matthew McAveeney, 46, made the unusual request in Woburn Superior Court on Wednesday, CBS Boston reports. He previously pleaded not guilty to murder in the (beating) death of his mother, Barbara, and cruelty to animals charges.
Although the alleged killer offered an explanation for why the cats must be added to the indictment before he’ll plead guilty, it’s hard to determine whether his tongue was placed deeply into his cheek, which given the context would be yet another sign of how much he hates/hated his mother, or if he’s simply insane. (The court has ordered a mental evaluation.)
I suspect the first possibility is probably the correct one. Here’s what McAveeney said to the media, who had their cameras rolling, when he entered the courtroom, according to WCVB:
“To my mother Barbara McAveeney and to her cats, Pumpkin and Puffy McAveeney, I apologize deeply.”
McAveeney explained further:
“[The indictment] does not name animals that were killed,” he said. “The animals were living beings. They had lives. They had personalities. They had identities. If I am going to be convicted of killing them, I would like them to be known for what they were and who they were by their names.”
The judge, who has probably heard plenty of peculiar explanations during her time on the bench, agreed to accept the change to the indictment. She will not decide whether to accept the change of plea until after the mental evaluation.
Given the fact that McAveeney, who is 46 years old, has requested to represent himself, one could surmise that he may suffer from some form of grandiosity. Oftentimes, individuals who believe that, despite their inexperience, they can do a better job in a court of law than the lawyers are not playing with a full deck
McAveeney was arrested in October, 2014 in a store parking lot in Belmont, North Carolina, where he had been traced based on a credit card trail. What could be construed as his essential instability is further demonstrated by the fact that according to law enforcement, at the time of his arrest he was combative and reportedly assaulted an officer. On the other hand, he could simply be a badass who doesn’t mind mixing it up, and does not discriminate between 70-year-old mothers and the men in blue.
At present, it’s not clear why McAveeney beat his mother to death, though that may ultimately be revealed if the alleged killer is allowed to represent himself and is given the chance to speak freely in front of a captive audience, something he will probably relish.