Sunday, December 22, 2013

Coerced stepson to kill dad

Here is an extreme case of parental alienation:
An Ohio woman who forced her 10-year-old stepson to fatally shoot his father in November 2003, ruled an accident at the time, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole Thursday.

According to the Toledo Blade, 46-year-old Judith Hawkey of Oakwood, Ohio, was sentenced in Defiance County Common Pleas Court, prosecutor Morris Murray said. She was convicted last month of aggravated murder, four counts of endangering a child and insurance fraud in connection to husband Robert Breininger’s death, which she claims was an accident.
She deserves the sentence, if she really did that.

I tend to be skeptical about these cases that depend entirely on some kid changing his story ten years later. He seems a little too happy with the outcome:
"Relief,” Breininger said as he describes his feelings to reporters after the sentencing. “I feel like she got what she deserved. I was ready to get it off my chest. I was bearing that burden for so many years."

Corey says now he can get on with his life.

"[I can] stop living in the shadows. I don't have to worry about anything now. My biggest fear... she's gone," said Breininger.
About once a month, there is a TV on a case like this. Typically the DA does not find enough evidence after an analysis of the crime, but certain vindictive family members spend years building a case against one of the suspects, and the DA eventually tries and convicts him.

The shows give the impression that justice was finally achieved, and someone who almost got away with murder is finally going to prison. Maybe so, in most cases, but it is very difficult to get the truth ten years later.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

well, on the flip side, the lesson is that it is very easy to manipulate a 10yo but the chickens often come home to roost.

and this is a tremendously unusual situation but children in their late teens and 20s like to revisit what they were told as children and they tend to know when they are being lied to.