by Patrick H. Moore
Florida may be leading the pack as far as wacky crimes are concerned, but for sheer evil it’s hard to conceive of anything worse than what an upstate New York resident recently admitted to in county court. At his hearing, David Renz, who had been on electronic monitoring based on a federal child pornography charge, admitted that he cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet, carjacked a mother and daughter on March 14th, and then stabbed and strangled the mother to death after raping her 10-year-old daughter.
Unsurprisingly, the presiding federal judge was sharply critical of the way the pre-trial services officers failed to keep track of Renz.
Prosecutors say Renz was trying to use cable ties to bind the woman to a headrest in her car when she fought back and shouted for the girl to bolt from the vehicle. As the girl ran off and was rescued by a passing motorist, her mother was strangled and repeatedly stabbed in the head and chest, officials said. Renz was captured by police shortly after.
Renz, 29, pleaded guilty to state charges of first-degree murder and sexual assault against a child. He was expected to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but the plea bargain can be withdrawn if the federal government seeks the death penalty.
According to the authorities, Renz — who was lying in wait — attacked the woman, a school librarian, and her daughter after they left a gymnastics class at a mall in the Syracuse suburb of Clay. Brandishing an air pistol, Renz forced the woman to driver her car to a remote section of the mall’s parking lot. He then bound both of them and raped the girl.
The prosecutors say that Renz “was trying to use cable ties to bind the woman to a headrest in her car when she fought back and shouted for the girl to bolt from the vehicle. As the girl ran off and was rescued by a passing motorist, her mother was strangled and repeatedly stabbed in the head and chest. Renz was captured by police shortly after.”
The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sex crimes and has chosen not to identify the woman in order to protect the identity of the girl.
It has been learned that a few hours before the attack, Renz removed and reassembled his electronic monitoring bracelet so that his pre-trial services people didn’t immediately realize he’d taken it off. He had been required to wear the device as a condition for being released from jail after his arrest in January on federal child pornography charges.
In a somewhat shocking turn of events, upon investigation, a federal judge discovered that the pre-trial services officers had been negligent in carrying out their routine monthly check-ups on Renz that would have included — among other things — inspection of the bracelet. It is reported that the federal probation officers in Syracuse who were assigned to the case were either fired or demoted.
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In learning about this case, one cannot help but be struck — not only by the sheer horror of what the mother and child endured — but by the fact that the abduction that led to this hideous event began in a suburban shopping mall. It appears that there was no way that the deceased mother could have possibly anticipated that she and her daughter would be attacked on their way out of the gymnastics class. It appears that there was no way they could have been prepared for this and protected themselves. They were completely vulnerable and Renz took full advantage of that fact. It will be interesting to see if the Feds decide to seek the death penalty.