commentary by Patrick H. Moore
With very few exceptions, no one likes being told what to do. It’s especially tough when you’re young because teens, and younger children, are constantly being told what to do by teachers, coaches, scout leaders, Sunday School teachers, and, of course, their own parents. Naturally, each kid must develop a personal survival strategy – a way to deflect the endless demands, even while acquiescing to some of them, in such a way that you maintain your sanity, and under no circumstances, make the tragic mistake that seems to be waylaying more and more young people these day.
What tragic mistake? Easy. The tragic mistake of killing your parents without having a foolproof alibi in place (and a way to support yourself once you are on your own).
Now I realize that many moralists would state unequivocally that under no circumstances should you murder your parents, and for the most part, I agree with that position (although there may be some exceptions).
But my purpose here is not to argue whether parricide may, in some cases, be justified. My sole purpose in this brief Sunday morning offering is to point out, using a recent Virginia double-parricide as an example, how incredibly stupid it is to kill your parents without having a credible alibi in place (e.g.: I was having sex with a Great White Shark off the coast of Madagascar on the night my parents met their maker).
Our example of how not to kill your parents comes to us out of Virginia. Joe Kemp of the New York Daily News writes:
A 16-year-old Virginia boy said he beat and stabbed his parents to death because he was sick of routine punishments “like my dad taking away my iPod and stuff,” authorities said.
Vincent Parker told investigators that he killed his 57-year-old mother, Carol, and 55-year-old father, Wayne, inside the family’s Norfolk home on Dec. 19, 2013, according to his confession revealed in court on Wednesday.
The teen, an only child, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.
“I just remember getting mad,” he told police, according to WTKR-TV. “It’s all from my dad. All this stuff like my dad taking away my iPod and stuff.”
Here, we note two important points. 1) Our moronic murderer, Vincent, definitely talks like a mindless teenager: “my dad taking away my iPod and stuff”. That’s pure teenager-ese. 2) Vincent does not appear to have properly analyzed his overall situation prior to the murders. For one thing, you probably don’t want to kill the old folks right there in the house, and, it might be wiser to kill then (or have them killed) separately so that the slayings appear random and unmotivated.
The teen, who happens to have been an honor roll student at Norview High School, explained to the investigators that he first attacked his mother as she exited a bathroom inside their Bland St. home. In order to rattle her and take her out of her comfort zone, Vincent first doused his mother Carol with pepper spray. So far this makes good sense tactically – if Mom is blinded by pepper spray she’s going to have a tough time fighting back or defending herself. Right at that moment, however, Vincent seems to have deteriorated dramatically; in short, he appears to have gone berserk. He stabbed his mother in the eye and beat her with a baseball bat and a crowbar “until she stopped breathing.” A medical examiner identified 25 separate smashes and stabs to Carol Parker’s neck, face and head.
It’s never a good idea when killing your parents to let the Little Berserker Within take over completely. You have to stay calm and collected just as you would if you were having sex with a Great White Shark.
When Vincent’s father Wayne Parker came home, Vincent appears to have once again let the Little Berserker Within hold sway. Vincent struck his father with a crowbar and stabbed him several times. Somehow, Wayne Parker managed to call 911 and was still hanging onto life by a slender thread when the police arrived. Wayne apparently “spilled the beans” and although Vincent first claimed his father had been the aggressor, according to the investigators, he changed his story and admitted he killed his parents. Vincent was Carol and Wayne’s only child.
Mike Mather of WTKR.Com describes further:
Vincent, who is 16, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in adult court. He’ll return to Norfolk Circuit Court in September to learn his sentence.
Why an honor-roll student with no criminal record snapped so violently over such benign punishments is a mystery to his family.
“He is a smart young man,” said his grandfather, Allen Taylor, father of Carol Taylor. “He is smart in school. I don’t know what happened.”
According to defense attorney Emily Munn, a psychiatric evaluation has revealed that Vincent was both sane and intelligent. Despite the fact Vincent is being sentenced as an adult, Attorney Munn told the judge she is going to ask the court to consider letting the boy serve at least part of his sentence in a juvenile facility. Although he obviously faces decades in prison if he’s sentenced to the maximum for both murders, his grandfather is hoping for a much shorter punishment.
“I want him to get some type of counseling,” said Mr. Taylor. “Help him to grow up and be an understanding man. Be sorry for what he did do. I told him to ask God to forgive him for what he did.”
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Wow, Vincent! You have really screwed up. I suppose it’s always good to confess your murders and you may gain spiritual “brownie points” by ‘fessing up, but — and I’m sure you’ve considered this — as a result of not planning your parricide properly, not only are your parents dead, which you may regret down the road, but you’ve managed to entirely wreck your own life. You’re going to be in prison forever, dude! What a freakin’ sap you are! Over an iPod…
What this does definitively prove is just how irrational teens can be. Their brains really don’t work very well at that age, as Vincent Parker has proven. He clearly didn’t have the wherewithal to plan his crime properly, and without a solid alibi, he simply had no business committing the awful crime.