GUILTY NJ - Jennifer Parks, 16, Randolph, 30 July 2005

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From September:

Judge: Teen accomplice in murder of Randolph girl was fairly tried as an adult

http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/crime/morris-county/2017/09/07/judge-teen-accomplice-murder-randolph-girl-fairly-tried-jennifer-parks/641245001/

A Superior Court judge Thursday refused to vacate a decade-old court decision to prosecute then-14-year-old James Zarate as an adult for the murder and dismemberment of teenage neighbor Jennifer Parks in Randolph.

The prosecution of Zarate, now 26, and the life sentence he received upon his conviction in 2009 has been the subject of ongoing litigation for the past few years. On Thursday, Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto, sitting in Morristown, decided against a defense motion filed earlier this year that sought to vacate the 2006 waiver of Zarate from Family Court to criminal court for prosecution as an adult for the murder of Parks, 16, on July 30, 2005.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Sentence cut to 50 years for killer of Randolph teen Jennifer Parks

http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/crime/morris-county/2017/11/08/sentence-cut-50-years-killer-randolph-teen-jennifer-parks/843356001/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=

A judge Wednesday reduced a life sentence to 50 years in prison for James Zarate, who was 14 when he helped his brother beat, stab and dismember teenage neighbor Jennifer Parks in the basement of their father's home in Randolph in 2005.

Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto's complex re-sentencing of Zarate, now 27, was based on a January state Supreme Court decision that said lengthy terms that are tantamount to life in prison should not be imposed on people who were juveniles when they murdered. The ruling, State v. Ricky Zuber, calls for juvenile killers to have a meaningful chance for parole from their sentences.

The difference in the sentences is that Zarate will now be eligible for parole when he is 57. Before, he would have been about 78 when eligible for release.

Laurie Parks, the mother of the 16-year-old victim who was slain on July 30, 2005, gave a bitter statement to the judge in which she described losing not only her only child, but her husband and her home. She was supported in court by nearly two dozen people, including her parish priest, friends, her mother, sisters, niece and nephew.

"The heinousness of the crime is exactly the same as it was 12 years ago. Not a day has gone by since July 30, 2005, that I don't miss my daughter Jennifer Parks. The horrific things that the defendant and his brother did to Jennifer remain exactly the same. They tortured her, punched her, stabbed her with a knife and choked her. When she begged for her life, they shoved a bandana down her throat to stop her from screaming," Parks said.