GUILTY FL - Dima Tower, 22, charged for murdering his 2 adoptive parents, North Port, 9 Sept 2023

[ChatteringBirds]

Dima I understand was adopted at 14. I don't know what his first crucial years were like. Don't know whether he suffered from the above, or whether abandonment and the war resulted in a brewing psychosis.

He must have suffered greatly as a child. However it doesn't sound like he had delusions/psychosis, or?

I would like to read a full transcript of this trial.

 

[Megnut]

Whoa. Dima is going to take the stand.

 

[Megnut]

This is cringy.

I feel bad for his hard life but that doesn't lessen his culpability here.

He isn't doing well on the stand.

Wants to give additional details, outside the scope of the questions asked. I thought he might even get testy.

And now he's broken down on the stand. Judge isn't having it.

Recess so he can compose himself.

I don't know how I feel right now.

JMO

 

[whitelilac]

Oh my gosh. I don't know what to say.
..just watched a bit while he was on the stand, about dropping out of school, how school teaches crap etc.
"You don't know what you're talking about" to a question, he says. He's belligerent.

 

[whitelilac]

Do we know if he has been evaluated by a psychiatrist, is he deemed competent in this trial?
He is deeply disturbed....

 

[Megnut]

Oh my gosh. I don't know what to say.
..just watched a bit while he was on the stand, about dropping out of school, how school teaches crap etc.
"You don't know what you're talking about" to a question, he says. He's belligerent.

Any sympathy he may have had, he have back. Shown himself to be arrogant, hot headed, argumentative...

And refused to let the Prosecution refer to his adoptive parents as his parents.

That was one heated testimony.

JMO

 

[Megnut]

Jury excused until tomorrow, 9am. For jury instructions, closing arguments and then deliberation.

Verdict long before dinner IMO.

jmo

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1989014841185743001

Teen Accused of Killing Adoptive Parents Confesses in Interrogation Video​

 

[arielilane]

"I'm talking because you don't know what you're talking about!" Things get spicy during an INTENSE cross-examination between defendant #DimaTower and the state prosecutor, who alleged that Tower was on the verge of being expelled from high school.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1989079203485217144

"What did your father say after you stabbed him?"Cross gets fiery as #DimaTower is questioned about the brutal stabbings of his adopted parents.He kept insisting: "These people were not my parents."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1989083310543560730

 

[arielilane]

-- Hard testimony to watch. He is a deeply disturbed person. His trust has been shattered.
-- He comes across as combative, a know it all, issues with fear of authority.
-- I am curious about the crying. Not sure that its remorse for his crime or for self.
-- The young man does not appear to have matured at all.
-- Id say his parents were living a hell with him before he killed them.

Only an opinion

 

[whitelilac]

I couldn't hear the interrogation video well. Did he ever say WHY he did this? Was it asked?

 

[JoeFromLB]

My first impressions and opinion?
He needs to be locked away for the rest of his life. Sorry, but I'm all out of patience here. One very dangerous young man.
JMO
Rest in peace to the poor parents who tried to help him. As we often see here, good intentions can have horrific results.

 

[Cryptic]

What war is the defense talking about?
AFAIR, Dima was adopted in 2015 at the age of 14.

They are talking about “Scenes1” and 2

RSBM

What war is the defense talking about?
AFAIR, Dima was adopted in 2015

They are talking about rounds 1 and 2 of the current Russo Ukrainian war.

- Round 1, 2014: horribly corrupt, but democratically elected Ukrainian president is overthrown via very violent riots. Riots took on an ethnic spin between ethnic Ukrainians and ethnic Russians (overthrown president tilted pro Russia)

Round 2. Riots turn into open warfare between pro Ukrainian and pro Russian militias. Ukrainians state that Russia is instigating the rebellion via “volunteers” from Russia proper.

An off again, on again war then lasts 9 or so years before the Russian fully invade and the big war starts

 

[Charlot123]

I deeply suspect that you are right. I have a relative who is a case worker with a good amount of experience with adopted kids.

She has told me that Ukrainian and Russian orphanages, courts, hospitals etc. are very well known for uhmm..... "censuring" records in order to hide or omit a variety of red flag warning signs.

Rather, both countries really want to facilitate adoptions of children in, well, "certain categories".

I have some experience translating for adopted kids (just out of courtesy, not professionally).

There is another side to it. The orphanages try to place for adoption the kids who, as they feel, would have had a chance of a normal future if they were raised in the family. Stronger, smarted, or maybe with good social skills (liked by the staff). I have seen situations when the adoptive parent would come for one child (a girl), and the staff would persuade them to adopt two, a boy and a girl. I usually see less of a financial component in adoption (although I was told that it was not a cheap thing), but more a sincere wish to at least help “the least affected ones”. Because, as we know, the stories behind kids ending up in the orphanages are not pretty.

So they might be not providing the full records (or the records may truly be scant), but something tells me that that orphanage viewed Dima as “having a potential”.

 

[CuriousDetective]

IMO based on what I have read here:

- severe attachment disorder (attachment trauma) as a child which has severely impacted self-identity, self-regulation, and ability to form relationships with his adoptive parents and others.

- antisocial and narcissistic personality traits, born out of that trauma. Possibly BPD traits as well.

- He was 14 when he was adopted. Likely 14 years without a solid attachment figure and likely neglect, if not abuse, in the orphanage.

I had a child client once (therapist) who was adopted from an orphanage in Eastern Europe. He had similar issues with his parents (not wanting to refer to them as his parents), and idolised his birth mother despite having very limited info about her. This case reminds me of him - he was violent, disrespectful of any type of perceived authority figure, dysregulated, etc.

 

[CuriousDetective]

So they might be not providing the full records (or the records may truly be scant), but something tells me that that orphanage viewed Dima as “having a potential”.

I respectfully disagree. He was adopted at 14. He was likely not adopted earlier due to behavioural or mental health issues.

 

[AnyNameIWish]

Defense did their minimum level of homework on this. This is a disturbed person who can't even function in a courtroom.... is there so much past trauma? Mental defect? Illness? We haven't even been allowed to hear his past history of being troubled in Ukraine?

I am not vouching for his innocence but it seems no one in the room, not even Defense attorney, has delved into this aspect of Dima's psyche. Why are no professionals called? Any background on his past in Ukraine?

If I missed any mention of it pls let me know but IMO his rage didn't just pop up in 1 week... not even 6 months...

I lived in Russia & bordering towns of Russia/Ukraine and Estonia a few years after USSR ended. Even then, many locals wondered so many westerner adopting/taking away children from orphanages- and many told me they wondered if the ones who were most difficult to place within Russia were ones sent overseas.

 

[Dotta]

I'm new to this case,
I noticed it and started following only yesterday.
(As it was featured on the main WS page)

What a tragedy!

I'm surprised that a 14-year-old boy was adopted.
Usually, much younger kids are chosen.
A teen being adopted is rare - at least in my country.

I wonder about a language barrier.
I'm not sure the boy was fluent in English at the time of being adopted.

Was he able to communicate at home, at school?

Besides, apart from anything else,
being 14 means the peak of teen's rebellion.
The hormonal system is going crazy.
This leads to emotional instability in teenagers.
They may experience outbursts of anger, uncontrolled hysteria, as well as anxiety and sadness.

Very unusual situation for adoption to a foreign country IMO.
(Well, these were my first thoughts about the case.)

RIP to the victims

JMO

 

[Charlot123]

I respectfully disagree. He was adopted at 14. He was likely not adopted earlier due to behavioural or mental health issues.

This we don't know. I know kids who were adopted later; for different reasons (some parents wanted to adopt younger children, or certain issues related to organization, such as kids being sometimes moved to larger orphanages for the adoption process, which in itself might be a trauma). What i have noticed, though, is a certain difference between the attitudes of the adoptive parents and the orphanages. Many adoptive parents are not looking for "perfect" kids; they'd adopt kids with FAS and genetic issues, for example. The orphanages tend to give the best chance to the strongest ones. (Just an observation, no opinion). The orphanages sometimes know a lot about biological families but "bad social history in the family" is not necessarily a deterrent. Rather, "if you survived this, you are a survivor, of course, you will survive in a good family".

There are some other issues that may play a huge role and that Slavic men usually would consider shameful to disclose, ever. God knows how certain histories manifests post-adoption and later in adult lives. We can guess, but we never know.

 

[JudyBolton]

I'm also new to this case but have tried to watch most of the recorded footage. A quick search indicates manslaughter in Florida carried up to 15 years. I will be shocked if the jury goes for that after the evidence and his demeanor on the stand.