News First 48 tonight, 7/15/2008

First 48 tonight, 7/15/2008

I dunno how many of you all follow the show, First 48, but tonight is an hour long episode devoted to the Lester Street killings here in town.

Without essentially ruining the show for you, the home is in a neighborhood called Binghampton, known for it's gang infestation and crackhouses if nothing else. It's about 3 miles west of me actually, as proof of how Memphis is affected by "sugar to shit" syndrome. 4 adults and IIRC 2 children were murdered here while 3 other children were viciously and seriously injured. At any rate, it'll showcase how broken our criminal justice system is here if/when they delve into the past of the responsible party.

After the show, I'll fill in the blanks. Friends in the ER worked on the surviving kids, and the ridiculousness of the situation regarding the person(s) responsible will make you want to scream. This is one crime that didn't have to happen...nor should it have ever happened.

i know this show..i've watched it a couple of times

have it on my dvr, but will watch it this weekend. i can't even keep up with my dvr anymore. i think i have the last two new episodes to watch also.

Basically(sorry to spoil it Ikon) the brother of the man renting the home(also the father of all the children) killed them all....by himself. At 18, Jessie Dotson killed a man in South Memphis over 20 bucks. He was charged with 1st degree murder, but agreed to an 18 year sentence and a charge of 2nd degree murder. He was released to parole after only 14 years....literally weeks prior to him attacking the 9 people, killing 6 of them.

Not only that, but he had violated his parole by carrying a weapon and robbing his own brother at gunpoint(!!!!!!!) yet nothing was done by the parole board nor did his parole officer feel the need to revoke him for it! Then, a little digging uncovered the mass ass covering by the parole board...as his gun crime SHOULD have resulted in his ass going back to the clink weeks before he killed his family members: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/Apr/17/lester-street-defendant-was-on-parole/

They changed his parole dates retroactively....just so the robbery they didn't act on and the killings didn't show up as happening on their 'watch' so to speak. They are trying to cover their own ass from impending liability.

This is a serious case of justice system failure, but this shit happens all the time here. Jail and parole/probation are a joke.....and these people would still be alive is he either had served his true sentence. Hell, they'd still be alive if his parole officer had violated him over the armed robbery!

Was this dude mentally ill or something? I just want to understand the motivate. I didn't catch the show...

He spent half his life and all of his adult life in prison for murder. He was far from stupid, mentally retarded, etc. What he lacked in book smarts he made up for in prison and skreet smarts. Add to that the typical Memphis "don't givva fuck" attitude and cold calculation that is literally the norm among the "poor, uneducated, poverty-stricken" youth here and you've got the makings of a killer. He was smart enough to play up the gang connection and the possibility of a "blackout" hit to send detectives in the wrong direction. What he didn't count on was the oldest child living and remembering every detail of what happened.

He had already killed a guy and robbed his dead body of 20 bucks....at 18 years old. He didn't care, you could see in his eyes at the first interview when they didn't know he was the killer that he could care less about any of what he did. it was just another day to him. There are hundreds of guys just like him all over this city.

No one really understands the motivation outside of his explanation that Cecil was arguing with him, he shot him to 'settle' it, and everyone else saw it so he attacked them too. He shot the adults and then grabbed the kids one by one and beat/stabbed them. One of the surviving kids had a 8 inch chef's knife sticking out of the top of its head. It lived like that over 24 hours before anyone made the scene.

Hell, had the parole officer done her job by violating his ass, all 9 people would still be alive/uninjured today. I think that's the saddest part of all of this. This didn't have to happen.

i love watching these kinds of shows and this one was probably the worst i have seen. the two reoccurring items i see in these shows is the killing is for no reason and that the killing is mostly by black people. i would like them to do follow ups to let people know what kind of sentence they got if they were convicted.

at the end of those show the killer confessed to his mom about killing his brother, friends and the kids and the mom said she "loves him". if i was that mom i would reached over the table and smacked him.

If you remember the guys' names, I can look them up in our Justice system inquiry and tell you what sentence they got. Jessie Dotson is still awaiting trial. His case has only recently gone "upstairs" in CJC to the criminal courts.

The reason it seems as if most of the crimes have been committed by black people is because Memphis(city itself) is something like 70% black now. In fact, I've only seen two non-black victims in all of the Memphis First 48 episodes, Chica and the Bosnian guy who was killed in his semitruck at the GE appliance warehouse.

The mom issue is actually part of the problem here. These mothers didn't adequately punish these kids when they were wild ass children moving to being young petty criminals and now they're turning into felons. There's a lot of the "It ain't mah baby's fault...my baby is a good kid. He ain't done nuthin wrong" mentality going around. Case in point would be the Deauntae Farrow case. Kid pointed an airsoft Wather replica at a cop at 11pm at night at a location being staked on a tip it would be robbed that evening, cop killed him, mom sues police dept. and cop himself.