"Documentary of the court case of Trevor Jones"

In spite of the dire predictions of the 80s and 90s teenage crime rates went down. Fear of young offenders seemed to subside somewhat. In 2005 the U. S Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for juveniles. And there were. Some discussions across the country about re examining the harsh punishments meet it out to juvenile offenders. Only 35 more workers in Colorado. Adam Kirk Jensen contributed by investing their time and money in a foundation they called pendulum. We couldn't stand the thought that there would be other parents going through the same thing if we could help it. We thought that we would form an organization that would try to change the laws, try to change the way things were done here, so that no other parent ever had to go through a wait while we went through. It's been an ongoing battle now for six years. Basically. For educating the public and for working with the state legislature. It's a battle that only ends when this state legislature and this and the next governor agree that juveniles have to be treated differently than adults and that they have to be given a second chance. By 2006 after a vigorous campaign by the local media and lobbying by the pendulum foundation. A bill sponsored by Republican representative Lynn Heffley finally reached the Legislature. The passage of the bill was fraught with tensions. The victim's families were adamantly against it. While the powerful district Attorney's Council agreed only to a watered down bill which changed the sentence for juveniles from life to 40 years with possible parole at the end The new law would apply only to future offenders. It would not apply to the 45 juveniles in Colorado already serving life without parole. The decision not to make a retroactive was probably a compromise perhaps a political deal. Don't forget the families of victims are very powerful advocates. One could certainly argue that if you were to make this law retroactive in resentence, these juveniles to something less than life without parole that you were taking something away from the families of victims. What they felt was a sentence that reflected a justice, perhaps in vengeance, that they felt they deserved because of the loss that they suffered. And I. can certainly understand the politics of such a thing and have such a deal They understand the justice of such a deal. Well, that's a very good question. I don't know that I understand the justice is such a deal I think the politics of criminal punishment in the US often Trump issues of justice. So I'll I'll understand it better as a political question than as a justice question. Mitch Morrissey, the district attorney in Denver, fought hard against making the law retroactive. His main reason, he says, was the victim's families. I have dealt with these families. I have been in these murder scenes I've personally been involved in handling a lot of these cases. And again, we are talking about for the most part, juvenile offenders that are some of the worst murderers in the history of the state of Colorado. And I don't think their age has anything to do with it. These are horrendous crimes. They took lives. They took sons, they took mothers, they took fathers, they took ants, they took uncles. They took so much away from people and we can never get it back Their family gets to go to the prison system and spend Thanksgiving with them. We never got that. We have to go to the cemetery. Gail Pologne is a mother of a victim of juvenile crime. Her son was killed ten years ago. By then. 17 year old Trevor Jones. When Trevor was found guilty, they promised us that he would get life in prison with no chance of parole. The state promised us that, and the state should see to that. That's what happens. Gale's only child. Matthew Foley was killed when he was 16. Matthew was a very giving kind kit. He was a type of kid that brightened any room when he walked in it. He lived for sports from the time he was little. I didn't have to worry about him watching violent movies or anything on TV because sports was on our TV all the time. Wanted to go to Notre Dame. He wanted to be a sports journalist. He was just a great kid. Trevor Jones did not do as well at that age when he was. Fourteen, he started skipping school and within the next three years he drifted into alcohol and drugs. He had a record of several misdemeanor charges for fighting and driving under the influence. Then in November 1996 he saw a chance to make some money off his classmate Matt Foley Matt was looking to buy a handgun for his cousin. I know that his cousin had to ask him to go by a gun and I know that he was shopping with a friend and he went to the mall and they kept paging him. Trevor did and had I guess they had already said that up. Trevor devised a scheme to con matt and arranged a meeting in a parking lot. The scheme was that I would pretend I was young, and then. Him give me the money and I tell him to let me see the gun again. So I could show him something about it. Then I would have both the money and the gun, and then we could leave It was supposed to become a foolproof scheme because you can't really go and say, hey, I was trying to buy a gun from a guy, and he took my money. Because it is illegal. But it was not foolproof. Suddenly, Trevor said the gun discharged. I didn't really realize what had happened. And then I heard Jake P scream something And then I realized something really bad had happened He turned around, he said, and ran. He hid outside through the night, then. Read in the paper that Matt Foley was dead. It was horrible just knowing that shot him. I didn't mean to shoot him at all. Then I found out that he died and. There's really no words to to describe it. I can't put words to it.

Matts's mom said that the police came to her door, and she knew something was wrong. He was the type of kid that was always home on time and he had a pager so I could page him. Even if he was on the highway coming home from the movies or something, he would get off the highway to call me and he never called me back. Oh, I know. Please talk. Told us that I was dead, but I didn't really know that Trevor was wanted for killing him. Jennifer is Trevor Jones's older sister, my mom kept saying he was friends with Matt. So it was kind of confusing. I was trying to keep my mom calm. My dad wasn't there. He was at work. And so I told her just wait until you talk to Trevor. You don't know. You don't know what's happened yet and she was just really scared. And we just, we were just on pins and needles until he turned himself in. He turned himself in the next morning. I went to the jail with my mom to visit Trevor. I was just feeling sad to see him in the jail. He was really scared. He was 17 and he was a name. The adult jail. Trevor went to trial in June 1997. He was. Charged as an adult with four crimes. Reckless manslaughter. Conspiracy to commit robbery. Robbery and felony murder. The most. Serious of the charges was felony murder. I was still just so sure that people were gonna understand that this was an accident. II was just so sure that they were. They were gonna understand that the jury. Did in fact understand and found Trevor guilty of reckless manslaughter. Attorney Kathleen Byrne explains the jury thought that it was essentially a very bad accident. That is what reckless manslaughter is. But the jury also found him guilty of robbery, which resulted in the charge of felony murder and the punishment of life without parole. Felony murder is 1 form of 1^st degree murder in Colorado. There are various types of 1^st degree murder. The most common or the most well known is after deliberation and with intent to cause a death. You cause a death. Felony murder is different in that it is what we call a strict liability crime. So long as you have committed certain. Acts. It doesn't matter. If you've committed, for example, the crime of robbery. And during that robbery, or immediately thereafter, or while you're fleeing from the robbery, the death of a person is caused because of the defendant's conduct, because of the robbery. It doesn't matter who who causes that conduct, so long as it is caused during the in the context of that robbery or the flight from the robbery, then the defendant is responsible for that death. Kathleen Byrne is an independent appellate attorney who often works for the state. She represented the state in Trevor's case, defending the conviction of felony murder in his appeal. He committed the robbery, which has two to six years so far as I read the statute. He committed conspiracy to commit robbery, which I think is one to three years. And he committed. A reckless manslaughter, which I think is two to six years The trial court could sentence them to run one after another or all at the same time. His sentence could have been between 2 and 15 years. The way I calculated. But because of the felony murder role, he was convicted of first degree murder and thus automatic life without parole.

The At-Risk Continuum Minimal Risk- Favorable demographics, positive family, school and social interaction, Remote Risk- Negative demographics less. Positive family, school and social interaction with some stressors. High Risk- Negative demographics, Negative family, school and social interaction numerous stressors development of personal at risk markers, negative attitudes, emotions and skill deficiencies. Imminent Risk- Negative demographics negative family, school and social interaction. Numerous stressors development of personal at risk markers, negative attitudes, emotions and skill deficiencies. Development of gateway behaviors and activities. At-Risk Category Activity- Negative demographics negative family school and social interaction Numerous stressors at risk for more intense maladaptive behavior, development of personal at risk markers, negative attitudes, emotions and skill deficiencies Young persons activity places him or her solidly in the at risk category development of gateway behaviors and activities at risk for other categories Young persons children will be at risk.

***After reading the documentary above, use The At-Risk Continuum to answer the following question.

1. Using the definitions in the text, describe where this individual falls on the At-Risk continuum. Explain the risk factors inherent in this individual's life.