11-18-2009 Michigan:HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (AP) — A 37-year-old father irate over hearing his 15-year-old son had sexual contact with a 3-year-old girl made the teen strip at gunpoint, marched him to a vacant lot and shot him to death despite pleas from the boy and his mother, a relative said.
Michigan authorities filed a first-degree murder charge Wednesday against Jamar Pinkney Sr. in the shooting death Monday of Jamar Pinkney Jr. in the Detroit enclave of Highland Park.
Defense attorney Corbett O'Meara said prosecutors should consider evidence of the father's state of mind over the sex abuse report.
"If something were to happen that would cause a reasonable person to lose control of himself, that is something the prosecution would have to take into account," O'Meara said outside Highland Park District Court.
Tensions were high in the courtroom Wednesday as the handcuffed suspect was led into the room for the arraignment, which lasted less than a minute.
"No, No, No," one female relative cried before a police officer escorted her out.
Judge Brigette Officer entered a not guilty plea for Pinkney, who's also charged with assault, and ordered him jailed without bond until a preliminary examination Dec. 1.
"This is something that's hard to deal with for all the parties concerned, including the police," police Chief Ted Caldwell said afterward. "Highland Park is a small city. These are people who have been members of the community for years."
Caldwell said the sexual misconduct allegation that led to the confrontation wasn't part of the police investigation.
The shooting happened Monday night in a vacant lot in the once-prosperous city of 16,000, where decay, abandonment, fires and demolition have eaten away at many of the sprawling homes. Highland Park recently exited years of state financial oversight.
Visitors built an impromptu memorial at the shooting site. Two votive candles sat amid 10 stuffed animals, including two white teddy bears with red hearts embroidered with, "I love you."
The boy's mother, Lazette Cherry, told the Detroit Free Press that her son told her he had improper sexual contact with the girl.
"I called and told his father. This isn't something you sweep under the rug," she said.
Cherry said the elder Pinkney arrived at the home with a gun, ordered his son to strip and marched him outside despite her protests.
"He got on his knees and begged, 'No, Daddy, No,' and he pulled the trigger," Cherry said.
Cherry did not immediately respond to a message Wednesday from The Associated Press seeking comment. ..Source.. David N. Goodman
Dad arraigned in son's killing; mom says she sought help for teen
11-18-2009 Michigan:
Jamar Pinkney Sr. stood stoically in a Highland Park courtroom today, silent as a judge ordered him back to jail without bond, accused of shooting his 15-year-old son in the head execution-style.
With waist-long dreadlocks, the postal carrier didn't flinch as his son's great-aunt wailed and had to be led from 30th District Court.
"This is the most horrible thing that's ever happened to him," Pinkney Sr.'s lawyer, Corbett O'Meara, said after the hearing, not addressing whether Pinkney feels any remorse about Monday's shooting. Pinkney Sr.'s preliminary exam is scheduled for 9 a.m. Dec. 1 in 30th District Court in Highland Park.
"He's calm," O'Meara added. "He appears to understand what's going on."
Investigators say Pinkney was reacting with rage when he stripped his son naked, marched him outside the home of the boy's mother and executed him Monday afternoon.
Lazette Cherry, Jamar Jr.'s mother, said she wanted to get her 15-year-old son help when he came to her and said he had acted inappropriately with his 3-year-old half-sister.
There wasn’t a rape, Cherry said her son told her. But he confessed to his mother that he knew lying on top of the baby was wrong, she said.
So she called her son's father and told him what she believed happened in his home on Newport on Detroit’s east side.
“I called and told his father this isn’t something you sweep under the rug,” the devastated mother said today.
His father showed up at the house Monday afternoon with a gun, she said.
“He started beating him right here,” Cherry said from her living room. “I said, ‘No, please stop!’ ”
But the father marched Jamar Jr., a sophomore at Martin Luther King High School, outside.
“He got on his knees and begged, ‘No, Daddy! No!’ and he pulled the trigger,” she said. “There wasn’t nothing that my son wouldn’t do for his father. He loved his father so much."
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office charged Pinkney Sr. with first-degree murder, punishable by up to life in prison. He's also been charged with three counts of felonious assault for pointing the gun at Cherry and two other people at her home before the shooting.
"No individual has the right to exact the death penalty on another no matter how reprehensible the behavior -- that is why we have laws," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said today in a statement announcing the charges.
“I hope he rots in jail,” Cherry said of the man she met while they worked at the post office. “He did not deserve that,” she said of her son.
As white teddy bears with red silk hearts bearing the words "I love you" sit on the grass next to her home where her son died, candle wrappers from a vigil held Tuesday night scattered around, Cherry still can't believe what happened.
"There's no justification for what he did, you know, downright shoot your child," she said, wondering aloud about her ex. "He didn't rape her or anything. So why did you have to come and take matters into your hands? We said we were going to get him help."
A fund has been set up to help the family with burial expenses for Jamar Jr. Donations can be made at the Charter One Bank branch in Highland Park. ..Source.. TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA, FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Father gets 35-80 year prison term for murdering 15-year-old son
4-15-2010 Michigan:
Jamar Pinkney Sr. was sentenced this morning serve a 35- to 80-year prison term for murdering his son because he believed the boy had molested his half sister.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan also ordered Pinkney to serve an addition two years for using a firearm in a felony.
Pinkey, 38, was convicted last week for the fatal shooting of his son, Jamar Jr., in November.
The elder Pinkney beat and stripped the 15-year-old boy naked and forced outside his Highland Park home into a vacant lot where he shot his son in the face at point-blank range.
Pinkney was charged with first-degree murder, but the jury came back with the lesser verdict after about three hours of deliberation.
Testifying in his on behalf, Pinkney said he lost control and felt he was having an out-of-body experience. He said his son admitted trying to have sex with his 3-year-old sister.
However, his mother Lazette Cherry said the boy never admitted anything more than “humping on” the little girl.
Two doctors testified that they did not find sure evidence of penetration. ..Source.. JOE SWICKARD, Free Press Staff Writer
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