Two local teens, who admitted shooting four horses and a cow Feb. 3, were adjudicated delinquent May 30 by Judge James Dehn and will remain under juvenile court jurisdiction until they are 21. It wasn't the resolution sought by the Isanti County Attorney's Office which wanted John Bernard Yates III and John Laird Green, both 16, tried as adults. Both teens have been in custody at Lino Lakes Detention Center since the shooting and returned there after Tuesday's court action. Yates and Green were skipping classes at St. Francis High School the day of the shooting and driving around in Green's car with two .23 cal guns and ammunition. As they drove along back roads in Stanford Township, they fired the weapons at horses at the Daudt, Miller, Olson and Peterson residences, killing them all and at a cow at the Stifter residence that had to be destroyed because of its injuries. The animals didn't die easily. Her voice breaking with emotion, Carol Miller told how her horse, Sharnell, had been shot in the head, panicked and tried to run back to the safety of the barn. With blood running in her eyes, the animal crashed through one fence and then another before collapsing on the ground. Continued from front Two neighbors tried to help the animal, one covering Sharnell with her own coat for warmth. It wasn't enough. When the veterinarian arrived, the horse was deemed beyond help and euthanized. "That image," said Miller, "was nearly more than one can bear." Peggy Peterson's letter was read on her behalf by a victim's advocate telling of how "Lightening Bug," their 8-month-old colt, was helpless as she was "trapped and gunned down" in her own pasture. "They've destroyed our trust," said Miller of Yates and Green. "Our hearts have been broken -- our trust destroyed forever." There were statements by several victims, all with a common thread of pain and a loss of trust. "I feel violated," said Jarret Miller, " and my sense of peace is gone." Prosecutor Dan Conlin said he had prepared several statements but felt the victims had expressed it best. "The random nature of it," said Conlin, "has reduced the community's sense of safety." Conlin believes the state addresses crimes against animals too lightly and favors a legislative change to increase penalties for adult offenders. If the state didn't see fit to try Yates and Green as adults, he said he hoped they received the maximum penalty within the juvenile system. Both Yates and Green plead guilty to four felony counts of cruelty to animals in the death of the horses and one count of criminal damage to property in the wounding of the cow. These were added for sentencing purposes to the two pleas each of second and third degree arson in connection with the burning of a house and an outbuilding in Anoka County Feb. 2. In filing his sentencing memorandum with the court May 25, Judge Dehn noted that adjudicating within the juvenile court system gives the state up to 12 times more control over future behavior than would the adult system. He based that belief on the weekly probation department contact rather than every three months of an adult felon, the lighter caseload of juvenile probation thus giving greater supervision and the ability to keep juvenile offenders under court control until they are 21. Restitution for the loss of the animals was ordered as well as up to $37,000 in the Anoka County arsons. In the Green and Yates case, particularly, he noted the intense involvement of the defendants' families as well as opinions from both juvenile probation and psychiatric consultants that it was in everyone's interest to keep them in Extended Juvenile Jurisdiction. Both defendants were placed in the custody of the Commissioner of Corrections for 15 months for the Isanti County offenses and 18 months for Anoka County crimes, to run concurrently, and then received a stay of execution of sentence. Both will immediately be moved into the Consequence, or 120/90 program, at Lino Lakes where they will serve time in a juvenile corrections type program with no credit for time served awaiting sentence. When they are released from custody, they will be subject to house arrest and electronic monitoring for up to six months, must perform 100 hours of community service, be under intensive supervision and subject to curfew, random urine tests, weekly visits with probation and monthly home visits by probation. They are not to go within one-half mile of the victims' property nor have contact of any kind with each other, starting with the program at Lino Lakes and continuing for the five year probation period. If the victims agree, they are to participate in a victim conferencing program. While praising the family involvement in the case and endorsing the probation and psychologist's opinion that the boys remain in the juvenile court system, Judge Dehn warned, "When we say we have jurisdiction over you until your 21st birthday, we mean it." Both Yates and Green expressed remorse for their crimes, but neither addressed one of the biggest questions lingering over the proceedings: why they had committed them. ©Isanti County News
E-mail us: editor.countynews@ecm-inc.com
Phone: 763-689-1981
Fax: 763-689-4372
234 Main Street
Cambridge, MN 55008