One case that haunts me is the horrific torture and murder of sweet Romona Moore, a 21 year old college student, in 2003. She was abducted off the street in NYC by two gang members and tortured and raped for several days before being murdered. Her torture included them trying to cut off her hands with a chainsaw. They kept her under a tarp in the family basement and even showed her off to one of their friends, Ramondo Jack. Romona begged Ramondo to help her and told him “you’re not like those others, please help me” He refused. Later he testified against the two thugs and in exchange received no charges.
“Ramondo Jack and Romona Moore were raised three-tenths of a mile apart in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The last time Mr. Jack saw Ms. Moore, on a visit to the old neighborhood, he said, she was lying on a basement floor, stripped to her underwear and chained by the neck and arms. Her eyes were blackened, her face swollen and bloodied, her voice weak from crying.”
“Mr. Jack walked out of that basement, joined his family across the street, shopped for a new outfit, attended a baby shower and then drove back to his new home in Maryland, he testified in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn yesterday.”
“He never called the police, he said. Two weeks after his visit, New York detectives came looking for him. By that time, Ms. Moore's decomposed body, with bits of duct tape stuck to it, had been dumped beside an ice cream truck. She was a Hunter College student, 21 years old. He was a family man down in Maryland, he said, intent on "taking care of my responsibilities."
Ramondo Jack testifies at murder trial of Kayson Pearson and Troy Hendrix that he saw defendants in Brooklyn building basement where Romona Moore was beaten and chained; photos (M)
www.nytimes.com
The killers were pure evil—they even tried to escape during the trial and one stabbed his lawyer. Poor Romona’s mother had just testified and was hysterical.
“Justice Tomei, who played a major role in eliminating the death penalty in this state, ordered two life terms without parole for each defendant, followed by multiple terms of 25 years, pronouncing that a fitting end for men he described as lower than animals.”
"Animals," Justice Tomei said, "do not torture each other."
“The sentencing marked the final chapter of a three-year odyssey through the justice system, a case that began with homemade posters for a missing young woman, temporarily included capital charges and finally produced two months of court hearings by turns wild and tedious.”
New York State Supreme Court (Brooklyn) Justice Albert Tomei sentences Kayson Pearson and Troy Hendrix, who have been convicted of torture and murder of college student Romona Moore and rape of 15-year-old girl, to life in prison without possibility of parole; photo (M)
www.nytimes.com
She has a thread here:
A man on trial in the killing of a 21-year-old college student used a homemade weapon to stab his defense attorney near his neck while his co-defendant reached for a court officer's gun, authorities said. Kayson Pearson stabbed the lawyer, Mitchell Dinnerstein, under the chin with a makeshift...
www.websleuths.com
RIP Romona.