GUILTY FL - Michael Roberts, 53, homeless, beaten to death, Holly Hill, 25 May 2005

[Taximom]

Does anyone remember the title of the documentary where they took teenagers to prison and had the inmates verbally rough them up a little (ok, a lot)? I think there was an original and then another done after 10 or 20 years. (Scared Straight?)

I might consider showing this to my son when he's a little bit older.

 

[czechmate7]

From the link:
"Messner is a big boy. He was 15 at the time he was brought into the woods to see the homeless man his friends had been beating. Even at that young age, he outweighed the victim, Michael Roberts, by 200 pounds when he jumped on his chest, crushing his ribcage. Roberts died.
"Did you feel bad when you are doing it?" Messner was asked during questioning.
"Not really, no," he replied.
He didn't feel bad then, but he does now. He has been in juvenile detention for eight months, locked in a small cell and occasionally allowed to go to class."

He's not even in prison! I'm glad the judge denied the motion.

He probably feels bad for having to be "locked in a small cell and occasionally allowed to go to class" not for what he's done.

 

[Melisinde]

Hmmm, makes me wish there was a Dexter in real life... I love that show...

 

[southcitymom]

"Messner's parents broke down at the denial. His mother said it's unfair, that her son fell in with a bad crowd and prison is killing him.



"He's not getting the mental health, the schooling. He's not getting anything, anything but locked in a cell all day long," Lori Messner said."


I like how the mom says it was unfair that he was denied. UNFAIR is raising a lousy, punk, jerk of a son that would beat a man to death out of boredon. UNFAIR is having a boy who weighs 200lbs jump on your rib cage suffocating you. No mom, prison is not killing him, you are by raising him this way without common decency or a sense of right and wrong.

It doesn't seem fair at all to say this young man's parents raised him without common decency or a sense of right or wrong. There's no evidence of that in this case.

 

[2sisters]

It doesn't seem fair at all to say this young man's parents raised him without common decency or a sense of right or wrong. There's no evidence of that in this case.

I have to wonder what was going on in their home that made this boy think it was ok to be bored and beat the crap out of someone and then feel no remorse for it.

 

[Floh]

Maybe he'd prefer to be in Britain?

Offenders Feel 'Unsafe'

Nearly a third of young criminals feel unsafe in jail, a new report claims.
The review of previous surveys by the Chief Inspector of Prisons found an overall improvement in conditions for children in custody.
However, nearly a third still said they felt unsafe - particularly in large, closed units.
Information drawn from two years of inspections of youth custody centres found many occupants were excluded from school or in care before being jailed.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13555407,00.html

 

[WhiteWolf]

I sure don't feel sorry for him. Warren Messner weighed over 300 lbs. when he jumped on Michael Roberts chest, outweighing Michael by 200 lbs.

Warren and his buddies beat Roberts with sticks and rocks, kicked, and jumped on him for a total of two full hours over a THREE DAY period. These kids had time to think about what they were doing.

Two previous stories with pictures of the boys and the victim, from February of this year, about the beating:

http://www.wftv.com/news/6883710/detail.html


http://www.wftv.com/news/8770112/detail.html

Edited to add: It was the father of one of the boys who turned them in to police.

 

[strach304]

...do the crime, do the time...

If he hadn't beat the homeless man, he wouldn't be with the psychos he's with now...end of story...

nan...this kid is gone already...waaay too late for "rehab."

Wanted to quote the "tough effin *hit" part too
Is there anybody at all here that would want their kids going to school with this boy or hanging out with your children? I know I don't.
Taximom, yes it was called scared straight. I don't know why they don't still do this especially in high crime areas where getting into the life and drug dealing is so common. I think many would choose a different path.

 

[Yakwoman]

"Messner's parents broke down at the denial. His mother said it's unfair, that her son fell in with a bad crowd and prison is killing him.


"He's not getting the mental health, the schooling. He's not getting anything, anything but locked in a cell all day long," Lori Messner said."


I like how the mom says it was unfair that he was denied. UNFAIR is raising a lousy, punk, jerk of a son that would beat a man to death out of boredon. UNFAIR is having a boy who weighs 200lbs jump on your rib cage suffocating you. No mom, prison is not killing him, you are by raising him this way without common decency or a sense of right and wrong.

Agreed!

As for her statment about not getting anything but locked in a cell all day long, TOUGH SH**! That's exactly what the kid deserves! After all, his victim doesn't get anything but locked in a coffin six feet under.

 

[2sisters]

Agreed!

As for her statment about not getting anything but locked in a cell all day long, TOUGH SH**! That's exactly what the kid deserves! After all, his victim doesn't get anything but locked in a coffin six feet under.

I forgot to mention, she has obvioulsy engrained zero accountability in him.

 

[Yakwoman]

I forgot to mention, she has obvioulsy engrained zero accountability in him.

Exactly. And, she obviously thinks he's "entitled" to more than he's getting in prison.

 

[michelle]

Exactly. And, she obviously thinks he's "entitled" to more than he's getting in prison.

He is right where he belongs. I feel bad for parents "sometimes" when kids commit crimes, but this mom seems to think her boy deserves something. I dont see it.

 

[dingo]

Either 18 or 21, depending on the crime, iirc.

.
Thanks DK.

 

[southcitymom]

I forgot to mention, she has obvioulsy engrained zero accountability in him.

We don't know enough about this boy's family life to say that anyone obviously did or didn't do anything.

Plenty of kids who were raised well make terrible choices. I see that all the time on these boards. It's easy to want to blame the parents. That's a comfortable place to place our anger and fear that someone so young could do something this senseless.

But there are rarely easy answers about these types of crimes. Certainly there are none in this case.

 

[deanws]

"Messner's parents broke down at the denial. His mother said it's unfair, that her son fell in with a bad crowd and prison is killing him.



"He's not getting the mental health, the schooling. He's not getting anything, anything but locked in a cell all day long," Lori Messner said."


I like how the mom says it was unfair that he was denied. UNFAIR is raising a lousy, punk, jerk of a son that would beat a man to death out of boredon. UNFAIR is having a boy who weighs 200lbs jump on your rib cage suffocating you. No mom, prison is not killing him, you are by raising him this way without common decency or a sense of right and wrong.

Exactly! :clap: :clap:

 

[kidzndogznme]

I have a question that is irrelevant but still has me wondering: The article states that these hoodlums returned to "the scene" 3 times in as many days and beat the victim. The scene is described as being in the woods. Does this mean that the homeless man lived in the woods? Or was he beaten so badly on day 1 that he was unable to leave the scene for medical attention? I just wonder why he didn't leave for help after the first attack. Maybe he was restrained???

 

[GlitchWizard]

Does anyone remember the title of the documentary where they took teenagers to prison and had the inmates verbally rough them up a little (ok, a lot)? I think there was an original and then another done after 10 or 20 years. (Scared Straight?)

I might consider showing this to my son when he's a little bit older.

I have a pen pal who is on Death Row (guilty of murder during a robbery.) He said he was involved in a scared straight program as a youngster that took the kids to a youth ranch for young offenders. Instead of seeing "loss of freedom" what he saw was guarenteed food for dinner, clean beds, activities and what he said looked more like heaven - since he had a horrible homelife.

So much for that scared straight program - that one backfired!

 

[2sisters]

I wonder is schools should start taking field trips to maximum security prisons? glitch, I can not imagine a homelife so horrible that prison is an escape. I can't imagine a child being so hungry and mistreated that they want to be in jail. I don't excuse his crime and I know he killed a person and doesn't deserve my pity, but I can't help but pity him. WE have to look at our actions as parents. Look at the things that were caused by his lack of parenting and safe home. A life was lost during a robbery, maybe it was a wife, mother, someones daughtera best friend, all those lives were torn apart and her son is in jail waiting to die

 

[Yakwoman]

I have a pen pal who is on Death Row (guilty of murder during a robbery.) He said he was involved in a scared straight program as a youngster that took the kids to a youth ranch for young offenders. Instead of seeing "loss of freedom" what he saw was guarenteed food for dinner, clean beds, activities and what he said looked more like heaven - since he had a horrible homelife.

So much for that scared straight program - that one backfired!

Wow. That is really sad. I had a horrific childhood, too, but I never thought about how much better it would be to live in jail. I can't imagine what your pen pal went through as a child to make him think that. You know, some people shouldn't be allowed to raise children.......

 

[dark_shadows]

.
In America at what age do juvies enter adult prison?
Down here it is usually 18...depending on the type of crime committed.

Hello Dingo,
We have and have had them in our facility under 18 years old.Males and females.

Children here are detained in our facility if they commited a crime that is punishable by life imprisonment or death.If it appears that the court is satisfied that incarceration is required for public safety and protection they are held.

We also have juvie duty outside of the facility.That means that we do juvie duty with 2 Officers in a motel room.They are booked in the room and they are either bailed (the person posting bail has to go to the facility to pay process the bail)

One female we had was 14 years old when she and her step-brother murdered her step-mother.She was not 14 when she came to the facility,but she was under 18.

Respectfully,
dark_shadows