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

[Dotta]

The jury found him guilty of first degree murder of his parents.

Justice for Jennifer and Robbie Tower.

Absolutely!
I cannot imagine any other verdict!

RIP to the victims

They went through hell with this criminal.
This case is horrific

 

[JoeFromLB]

Good jury, good verdict!

 

[JoeFromLB]

Sentencing proceeding. This will happen quickly. The sooner the better. JMO

 

[whitelilac]

What on earth led him to do this though. I know we can't get into the head of such a deeply disturbed individual.

Did they discipline him as parents must do at times? Over time did his parents become afraid of him? Did he display frightening behavior, malice and rebellion that climaxed at some point?
Was the family ok up to a certain point before Dima displayed such internal rage?

Such a profoundly sad case. Parents just wanted to give him security and a good life.

 

[JoeFromLB]

This is heartbreaking.

 

[JoeFromLB]

Consecutive life terms. Good.

"You seem to be an evil spirit,” Judge Krug told Tower, sentencing him to consecutive life terms in prison in addition to the five years for trying to outrace the police in his car.

 

[JoeFromLB]

“An evil spirit:” Judge hands down maximum penalty to convicted killer

 

[Eli9]

“An evil spirit:” Judge hands down maximum penalty to convicted killer

Good article. Consecutive life terms plus five years for the police chase.

 

[whitelilac]

Statements and sentencing.
I haven't seen all of it yet. Robbie's brother says he didn't just kill them, but killed all of us. He wants Dima to change his name, doesn't want him associated with the Tower name or family.

eta.....Robbie was his son rather.
Heartbreaking to watch this poor man speak.

 

[The4TierBridge]

Wow! That was the most ineffective counsel I've ever seen. I hope he appeals.

And the judge kept interrupting him every time he tried to say something too. He keeps talking about the "the truth" but never got to explain what he thought that was.

 

[AnyNameIWish]

Wow! That was the most ineffective counsel I've ever seen. I hope he appeals.

And the judge kept interrupting him every time he tried to say something too. He keeps talking about the "the truth" but never got to explain what he thought that was.

Just listening to big chunks of it... all that arguing by the state? Honestly I suspect we all could collectively come up with a better defense. When he arrived here he was a 14 year old who felt discarded by his biological family. That doesn't explain his actions but his demeanor... inability to speak without getting confrontational.... it's not normal and I have yet to hear if he had any psychological evaluation!

Again. Not saying any of Dima's actions were valid. But the defense didn't seem to raise a finger to delve into his past in the orphanage and growing up in the American family and society..... How did he fit in? How were his struggles addressed? We have no picture of what it was like.

Would it be different IF they found paperwork from the orphanage describing that Dima was showing disturbing tendencies as a small child, and that was suppressed upon adoption?

https://www.npr.org/2012/03/25/149319484/in-contentious-system-hope-for-a-russian-orphan

Adoptions from Russia no longer exist but this above case was just so sad, as well.

Tldr:
Artyom Savelyev (renamed Justin Hansen) In April 2010, Torry Hansen of Shelbyville, Tennessee, put her 7-year-old adopted son on a one-way flight back to Moscow, unaccompanied. He was sent with a note saying she no longer wanted to parent him, claiming he was "mentally unstable" and "violent". The incident caused a major diplomatic controversy, with Russia's foreign minister calling it "the last straw". The boy eventually lived in a foster family village outside Moscow.

 

[Cryptic]

He must have suffered greatly as a child.

His real suffering has not really started.

People who harm their mothers are ranked 1/2 a step ahead of child molesters in the prison hierarchy.

The people enforcing that hierarchy enjoy violently enforcing it. So…. Dima’s “ Not technically my mother” argument probably is not going to work.

Then factor in his very negative personality. Plenty of those in prison. But…. Most know to dial it down when needed lest one offend a lifer with nothing to lose and who also has a stabbing tendency. Dima, however, does seem capable of dialing Dima down.

I doubt the local white prison gang will take him due to his offense and uncontrolled personality.

In sort, Dina is likely to be alone in a world of other predators where nobody cares that he has this or that personality disorder or had a difficult childhood.

Thinking that he is not going to like years of uhmmm…. “Physical therapy”.

 

[realanastasia]

Wow! That was the most ineffective counsel I've ever seen. I hope he appeals.

And the judge kept interrupting him every time he tried to say something too. He keeps talking about the "the truth" but never got to explain what he thought that was.

I am curious—do you hope he appeals because you think this isn’t the right sentence for the crime?

I can imagine (based on nothing specific to this case) that he may have had longstanding psychological issues compounded by his time at the orphanage and subsequent “culture shock” of being adopted by a seemingly financially comfortable American couple at a somewhat advanced stage of childhood. But many others folks have absolutely traumatic childhoods/upbringings and/or psychological issues, and AFAIK, most of them DON’T grow up to calculatedly torture and slaughter their parents (bio, foster, adoptive, or otherwise), let alone “double down” while expressing their utter lack of remorse for their actions. So to me, the sentence seems absolutely apropos, and I wonder how many of today’s jurors would have felt the same even IF the particulars of his background were laid out by his defense.

 

[nao]

Moo...they were not his parents, they adopted him at 14. It would be culture shock and loss of identity at that age. Maybe no emotional or cultural bond established. His age of adoption is problematic. I read many more stories where adoptive parents have no bond with the adopted child or children and torture or murder the children. So obviously adoption does have problematic issues that are frequently not understood...moo

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Were things actually going well when Jennifer and Robbie began the efforts to adopt Dima? Did they feel bonded to him and believe he felt a bond with them?

Did Dima want the adoption?

Was he putting on an act and pretending until after the adoption was final, or did he show his psychological problems all along, and they accepted it, and wanted to adopt and help him anyway?

Did he ever cooperate with a psychological evaluation, receive diagnoses, and attempt therapy?

He said he consumed alcohol prior to the murders. Does he battle alcohol dependency? If so, at what age did he begin drinking? Is fetal alcohol syndrome one possible diagnosis for him? (Since alcohol dependency can run in families.)

Did he ever say "why" he "hated life in America?"

 

[Megnut]

Were things actually going well when Jennifer and Robbie began the efforts to adopt Dima? Did they feel bonded to him and believe he felt a bond with them?

Did Dima want the adoption?

Was he putting on an act and pretending until after the adoption was final, or did he show his psychological problems all along, and they accepted it, and wanted to adopt and help him anyway?

Did he ever cooperate with a psychological evaluation, receive diagnoses, and attempt therapy?

He said he consumed alcohol prior to the murders. Does he battle alcohol dependency? If so, at what age did he begin drinking? Is fetal alcohol syndrome one possible diagnosis for him? (Since alcohol dependency can run in families.)

Did he ever say "why" he "hated life in America?"

I can't answer to any of that, but I can imagine how sincerely Robbie and Jennifer likely entered into that adoption. The desire to grow their family, the belief that love can conquer all. I imagine they genuinely thought they could, in effect, rescue him, give him a better life, overcome his early childhood trauma. Did they think it was going to be a Lifetime movie? No, in sure they thought it would come with some challenges but IMO they couldn't have anticipated just how awful it was going to be.

It is tragic that, whatever combination of factors led to it, that his brain wired itself wrong. The way he over-talked the very judge about to sentence him, just stunning how dysregulated he is. And dangerous. Smart enough to pick up the jargon -- out of my mind, didn't know what I was doing -- and yet -- scary as hell -- he contemplated it, executed it, recalled it, and had no trouble justifying it. Thinly veiled 'they made me do it'. This truth of his that, had he been given 10 hours to spew it, still wouldn't have made any sense.

They were murdered for trying to love him.

No winners here.

JMO

 

[Dotta]

He was over 20 when he murdered the victims.
Where was he living exactly?
What was his job?
Did he have a girlfriend, friends?
If he didn't like the life in the USA, he could always return to his home country, no?
He was an adult.

 

[JoeFromLB]

I can't answer to any of that, but I can imagine how sincerely Robbie and Jennifer likely entered into that adoption. The desire to grow their family, the belief that love can conquer all. I imagine they genuinely thought they could, in effect, rescue him, give him a better life, overcome his early childhood trauma. Did they think it was going to be a Lifetime movie? No, in sure they thought it would come with some challenges but IMO they couldn't have anticipated just how awful it was going to be.

It is tragic that, whatever combination of factors led to it, that his brain wired itself wrong. The way he over-talked the very judge about to sentence him, just stunning how dysregulated he is. And dangerous. Smart enough to pick up the jargon -- out of my mind, didn't know what I was doing -- and yet -- scary as hell -- he contemplated it, executed it, recalled it, and had no trouble justifying it. Thinly veiled 'they made me do it'. This truth of his that, had he been given 10 hours to spew it, still wouldn't have made any sense.

They were murdered for trying to love him.

No winners here.

JMO

There are threads here on Camden Nicholson and Matthew Bryson McDonald, two young men whose parents tried their best to help them with their severe mental issues. They were repaid with murder. In Matthew's case, decapitation of his poor mother.
Also the case that I followed closely for TWELVE years, Beau Bruneau's savage murder of his mother Nancy. There's a thread here on that too.

 

[PayrollNerd]

He was over 20 when he murdered the victims.
Where was he living exactly?
What was his job?
Did he have a girlfriend, friends?
If he didn't like the life in the USA, he could always return to his home country, no?
He was an adult.

Exactly. At his age, he could have asked for his adoption and birth records, applied for a passport and left the country. Nobody was holding him here against his will.

Lots of people believe we’re the greatest, richest country in the world. But news flash, we’re not, to some people. Familiarity breeds acceptance. The US lifestyle was not familiar to him and he couldn’t accept it mentally.

He will now. He’s entering into a very narrow, very limited view of the US, within a prison cell. If he survives in prison, maybe he will thrive with the structure and routine.

 

[turaj]

First I did not watch the entire trial but got snippets. It seems there was no defense case other than putting him on the stand but he could not tell his story. As an adoptive parent myself I know some of the challenges. Back in the day lots of Russian adoptions...it was popular that is until the parents started reporting so many issues. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome was common and seemed to be linked with many personality disorders. Some parents had to return the children. Also Dima being adopted at 14 after death of parent and various orphanages is a real red flag. So many issues there..I knew many parents that went thru hell. Reports are that law enforcement was called for domestic situations in the home with Dima's aggression but charges dropped. His inability to look directly at a person speaking to him really sends red flags up. There is a big back story here that should have been considered at least in terms of sentencing and placement in prison. Nothing excuses what happened but Dima is a very disturbed young man and I think the case should have been tried much differently. Guilty of course but what now? In my community there were a number of such adoptees that took their own lives. Very sad.