A Colorado woman was sentenced Friday to 38 years in prison for beating a man to death with a baseball bat because she wrongly suspected him of molesting a child, The Denver Post reported.
Forsythia Owen, 32, of Englewood, was convicted of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and tampering with evidence in the September 2013 death of Denzel Rainey, 42.
Owen told authorities she repeatedly struck Rainey with a Louisville Slugger bat as he was sleeping in an alley because her 4-year-old daughter claimed he had touched and sexually abused her.
Rainey was found with a skull fracture, cuts to his head, a broken left arm, six broken ribs, a laceration to the liver and a left testicle hemorrhage, CBS Denver reported. He died hours later at a hospital.
Owen's molestation claims against Rainey were unfounded and she had no evidence to support them, authorities said.
Owen, who had been drinking and smoking marijuana, and had a history of mental illness and run-ins with the law, was urged by friends to tell authorities of the allegations.
However, she engaged in "misplaced, vigilante justice," said Jason Siers, senior chief deputy district attorney in Arapahoe County.
I'm calling my congressman and demand a 3 day waiting period (and intense background check) for purchasing baseball bats!
ReplyDeleteBut a gang of cops in Fullerton, California can beat a homeless to his ultimate death and get away with it.
ReplyDeleteThe homeless are always easy targets for violence.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if she had feared his family would give her some of the same, she'd have called the police instead.
I'm no lover of law enforcement, but in case of serious felonies- we pay them to do a job, and if we want them to do it then we need to call them.
Most people hold that vigilante justice is acceptable only when no reasonable form of justice otherwise exists to address the crime.
Ironically his middle name was 'Iraq'.
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