14-year-old Camden girl pleads guilty to torture killing

[Blue_Tires]

Source: Philadelphia Daily News

Just a few years ago, Shatara Carter was the kind of girl who put "Dora the Explorer" and little pink hearts on her MySpace page.

Now the 14-year-old goes by the nickname "Fiesty Ru" in her Camden street gang, and she admitted in court yesterday that she's the kind of girl who beat, strangled, and stabbed a young woman to death because her gang leader told her to.

Dressed in a purple shirt, jeans, and sneakers, the soft-spoken, bespectacled teen described in detail how she slowly tortured and killed Muriah Huff, 18, inside a Berkley Street rowhouse in Camden on Feb. 22 after Kuasheim "Presto" Powell pistol-whipped the woman and hit her with a chair until it broke apart.

"He told me and my homegirl to finish her off," Carter said yesterday morning in Camden County Superior Court.

Finishing off Huff wasn't easy, though, Carter said. She said she and other codefendants strangled the young woman with their hands, placed a plastic bag over her head, and finally used a rope. Huff was also stabbed.

"Did you beat her down with pieces of the chair?" asked her attorney, Kevin Lewis.

"Yes sir," she replied.

Earlier yesterday, Carter agreed to be waived to adult court, where she pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter before Superior Court Judge Thomas Brown. She will have to serve at least 17 years of a 20-year prison term when sentenced on July 9.



Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/94901724.html

[jayfish]

1. Stories Like This Test My Opposition To The Death Penalty. -NT-

FSH

[cali]

3. They don't mine. She's a child. Yes, the act she committed is heinous

but civilized societies don't execute kids. This case makes me angry at a society that treats inner city children like refuse.

[marshall]

5. Where were this child's parents?

<>

Wouldn't they have noticed when she went from posting Dora the Explorer to photos of herself flashing gang signs?

[WhiteTara]

9. her parents were probably working at

underpaid jobs most of the time. Maybe even divorced. Just another reason to shore up our schools and after hour programs for at risk kids like her.

[Dappleganger]

12. Yep.

So many of those after school programs for her middle schoolers have been cut back or eliminated entirely. 14 is such a tough age in a NORMAL family as it is.

We're raising our third 14 year old (the fourth one will be there in another year and a half) and it's definitely no picnic. We've had one who just never spoke to us during that time, another one who was very chatty and another who has made lying into an art form. We thought that I could go to work during these years when they are older, but I don't dare leave because of not being sure she is telling me the truth. Raising middle schoolers really does require a lot of work!

[WhiteTara]

15. yes it does

this makes chasing them as two year olds seem like the best time of your life. I had one who lost her car every time she went the wrong way (drinking every time she got out of our sight)...the keys spent more time in my purse than hers. But after a summer of upward bound (college prep) she came to me and said, "I've decided not to ruin my life in trying to piss you off." I sat down and cried tears of relief.

[Skidmore]

40. Acknowledging that I don't know the specifics of this child's case and

that lots of people have let her down along the way, I am going to go out on the limb to defend single and/or divorced and poor parents. In this society where full half of all marriages do not succeed and end in divorce, that means that there are many children who fall in this category. It is also true that the majority of our children turn out well. You can parent successfully and work. It takes lots of energy and a willingness to stay on top of things and an understanding that your obligations are more important than having a social life. I just get so sick of this being used and the hook on which to hang all adolescent criminal behavior. We have seen case after case of children committing violent crimes and who come from homes which have financial security and intact marriages. All those cases where the community collectively gasps and babbles incessantly about the quality of the family and how could their child have done such a thing.

[readmoreoften]

43. Why do people ask this question? Where do you THINK the parents were?

They were working their minimum wage jobs.

[jayfish]

8. There Is A Callous Disregard For Not Only Human Life...

but humanity in general here that I don't think can be rehabilitated. There is no question of guilt either. That being said; I am still anti-death penalty.

FSH

[Dappleganger]

10. Yeah, no doubt in my mind about this one

at her age she is definitely a child. It's easy to blame the parents but if there aren't any around OR they are as uneducated as the girl that wouldn't be surprising. I wonder if she was still in school and if anyone noticed her gang activity?

[Kookaburra]

2. Dear God! What is wrong with these kids?

What has happened to turn them into such monsters?

We had the same angst and insecurities as these kids when we were teenagers, but we just sat around and smoked pot in my friend's parents' basement.

This kind of thing was very rarely heard of.

[brendan120678]

4. Bad parenting, lack of good education...

poor role models.

Take your pick.

Most of these kids don't have a "parents' basement" to hang out in and stay out of trouble.

[CurtEastPoint]

6. Here's a local story: out of control 17 y/o twins kill Mom

Put them away...for a long time.

http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/friends-not-surprised-twins-535090.html

[Kookaburra]

34. It's heartbreaking.

[awoke_in_2003]

38. include overworked

and underpaid parent(s)

[AngryAmish]

44. By any reasonable measure crime rates are way down from the 60s and 70s

This has been going on for a long time.

[Orsino]

48. Weakness.

To prove themselves strong, they did as they were told.

[ampad]

51. Last night I watched a movie called American crime

I'm not sure if you have watched this movie but I do not recommend it if you are easily disturbed. It is a true story which took place during the late 60's in Indiana. Basically a deranged mother of six took on two sisters as wards. Well the deranged mother beat and tortured that poor child( Sylvia) to her death. If that was not bad enough she allowed the neighborhood kids to beat Sylvia and scar her with the words "I'm a prostitute and proud of it." The mother allowed her six children to join in on the torture as well. The neighbors heard this child screaming yet they did nothing to help her. Again, this happened in the 60's the so called good ol days.

I'm not saying that this one story is evidence that the period of the 60-70 were horrible and that the kids today are any better. However, considering the mindset of that generation it makes me wonder how many Sylvia's endured that type of abuse during that time period. For the simple fact that Indiana had no type of child protection laws on the books. Instead they used animal abuse laws when it came to children. Not to mention the spare the rod, spoil the child attitude that seem to be more acceptable back then than it is now.

[Scuba]

7. As the rich get richer....

...the poor get poorer and society begins to unravel. Fifty-percent unemployment for blacks in inner cities. Poor rural whites have no hope of improving their lot in life. And the rich get tax breaks.

[Imajika]

14. The crime rate is actually going down...

...and has been for quite awhile.

So no, society is not unraveling.

We are more connected nowadays so we just hear about this stuff faster and more often. People make the mistake of thinking that because they have access to instant news from a multitude of sources that somehow more crime is happening, or that there are more shark attacks, etc, etc.

[Scuba]

16. You are correct to a point...

... but if you're optimistic about the growing numbers of poor and their lot in this country I want some of what you're smoking.

[nyc 4 Biden]

31. at least in nyc, the crime stats are bogus...

the crime rate is only going down because Bloomberg & NYPD brass are pressuring police officers to downgrade crimes DRAMATICALLY.

ARMED ROBBERY = STOLEN PROPERTY
FELONY SEXUAL ASSAULT = MISDEMEANOR FORCIBLE TOUCHING
GRAND LARCENY FELONY = PETIT-LARCENY MISDEMEANOR

Just like NCLB forced schools to replace proper education with "teaching to the test." CompStat has turned police officers stat-obsessed and ready and willing to fudge reports.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nypd_stats_were_captain_cooked_ykUWy6gXcPxYl87fGonQoO
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/05/26/2010-05-26_leaders_unite_demand_precinct_leaders_head.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-sledge/cop-on-the-nypd-tapes-und_b_572730.html
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/05/audit_those_nyp.php

the above links are the tip of the iceberg. most of this is a not so well kept secret in nyc and the 800 lb gorilla in the room in the law enforcement community in particular.

eta: just wanted to note that crime is actually going up in nyc. but you won't see that in the papers or in NYPD press briefings.

[closeupready]

56. They've been doing this for MANY years - since the last 90's at least.

n/t

[seabeyond]

39. i did some research on this. places are also manipulating the reporting.

fbi crime statistics is only as good as what they receive. and each area decides what is sent in and what is not. how things are worded, how crime is preceived and catagorized. what is allowed and not.

i am not believing any of these "statistics" anymore

rape has dropped way down. the fbi says not to believe the numbers for different factors. one of them being 30-70% of rapes not reported. hmmm.... big difference in thoughts of what isnt even reported.

[Silent3]

53. It might be hard to tell real crime rate changes city by city...

...but unless there is a coordinated national effort to fudge all violent crime data, the individual crime statistic games should average out, and a downward trend would still be a downward trend, even when absolute crime numbers are hidden behind a lack of reported crimes.

(Of course, I wouldn't put it beyond anyone on DU to happily believe in a massively coordinated national or global conspiracy to fake crime statistics. I suspect many would act like the burden of proof is mine to prove that this is NOT happening. :) )

At any rate, the notion of a perpetual downward slide from generation to generation either can't be real, or has to be incredibly subtle. If 1930s were truly worse than the 1920s, and the 40s truly worse than the 30s, and the 50s truly worse than the 40s... etc., etc., relentlessly getting quite noticeably worse all of the time, we'd already be worse than present-day Somalia by now from the way people talk.

[proteus_lives]

11. She deserves those 20 years.

She should be doing life.

[Dappleganger]

13. She's 14.

Not an adult.

[1620rock]

17. Old enough to torture and kill, old enough to rot in prison.

[madrchsod]

18. she`ll be in a youth facility until she is old enough to transfer

she`ll be out when she`s around 30 something.

[TwilightGardener]

19. No--but, there is something frightening about the WAY this girl killed her victim, more so

than just shooting her. Shooting a victim can possibly be chalked up to a sudden uncontrolled impulse, and there's a distance there--the consequences of pulling the trigger may not seem "real" to a kid. THIS killing took time and effort and personal hands-on contact, and was orchestrated to make the victim suffer--and it wasn't done out of anger or revenge. Very chilling.

[Quantess]

50. Her victim, Muriah Huff

I had to post her photo somewhere, because everyone is focusing on the perpetrator.

[struggle4progress]

54. ... Muriah Ashley Huff .. and her boyfriend, Michael Hawkins .. were found buried in the yard ...

Posted on Tue, Mar. 2, 2010
Bodies buried in Camden backyard ID'd by cops
By JASON NARK
Philadelphia Daily News
[email protected] 856-779-3231
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20100302_Bodies_buried_in_Camden_backyard_ID_d_by_cops.html

[Quantess]

55. Michael Hawkins had most of the bones in his face broken before he died.

Allegedly by one or more of the other perpetrators in the case.

[Hulk]

20. And she'll be 34 and just as sick or sicker when she gets out.

If anyone thinks this sick mind is going to "see the light" after twenty years in a prison with like minded, twisted women.....you are pretty damned naive.

[Dappleganger]

21. Not naive at all.

If she went in as an adult she would not be any better or 'changed'--they almost nearly all come out as worsened, hardened, criminals considering the prison environment focuses on punishment instead of rehabilitation.

And the fact that so many on this thread are basing their judgment of this girl based on how hideous they believe the crime to be is not only denying her rights, but those of children in the future who may be involved in such crimes and sentenced as adults. This girl is not 16 or 17, but 14. Legally, she is not an adult and this is why I believe her sentence to not be appropriate.

[proteus_lives]

27. Old enough to kill and she understood what she was doing.

She snuffed out a life without remorse.

I'm not feeling any pity for her.

[closeupready]

22. They should print her booking photo. The photo they print covers her face.

n/t

[Bette Noir]

23. The whole world is falling apart.

That's all there is to it. The whole society has failed, when a little girl can turn into a brutal murderer so quickly.

[Silent3]

29. Violent crime is down.

There will always be horror stories. Not every bad story is part of a trend line. If your standard for societal success is the absolute impossibility of such events ever happening, then society has always been, is now, and forever shall be (at least until all humans are gone, and only if nothing even remotely like us replaces us) a failure.

Meanwhile, in a more realistic world, success and failure of our society has to be measured on the scale of the big picture. Not that there aren't plenty of big picture problems too, but emotional reactions to individual stories isn't the way to get perspective.

[Echo In Light]

37. Fucked, Brainwashed "Civilization"

[AngryAmish]

46. Interpersonal violence way higher in uncivilized societies

(such as African Bushmen or iKung!, aboriginal Australians, Amazon basin, et al.)

One of the central defining features of civilization is lower rates of interpersonal violence. Really. Stories like this makes it seem untrue, tho.

[Echo In Light]

57. I don't doubt that. However, there are many forms of 'soft' brutality/inhumanity within ...

... the current dominant systems/structures that effects everyone ('friendly fascism')

[Berry Cool]

24. I simply cannot believe this girl did this simply because her parents may be unemployed

or, conversely, as someone else implied, because they may be too busy working at underpaying jobs to properly look after her.

That doesn't explain the untold millions of kids with unemployed/underemployed parents who somehow don't end up torturing and killing other people at age 14. Or ever.

I'm sorry. I know many people have it tough and they deserve a better life. But there has got to be more to this than some poor kid being deprived because her parents didn't have good jobs and she didn't have a freaking after-school program.

[NoNothing]

25. It's utter neglect is what it is

Human beings are, at their core, capable of stunning levels of brutality. After all, we evolved from an absolutely brutal state of nature with no limits whatsoever to the spectrum of suffering. "Civilization" as such is not instinctual, it is learned. It requires teaching, modeling, and most of all the moral conviction that right and wrong really do exist independent of the convenience of the moment. The fact is that these kids have been failed by those responsible for civilizing them, no less so than if they had been left with the wolves.

[theHandpuppet]

32. Thank you

My parents grew up in Appalachia during the depression and in the kind of grinding poverty few can imagine these days. They and millions of others didn't use it as an excuse to kill. I'm sorry, but those are bullshit excuses for torture and murder.

[readmoreoften]

45. Uh. No one is saying that parents working 16 hours a day CAUSED the murder.

It simply answers the idiotic question/whine: "Where were the parents?" If you don't know where the parents of poor kids are, you're a fucking moron. Now that doesn't mean that the child isn't culpable. There are many who don't commit violent crimes who grew up under similar conditions. But also what may be at fault here is a system that expects parents who work 16 hours a day to watch their kids and spend more money on Afpak than after school programs and anti-gang initiatives.

[Regret My New Name]

49. Not to mention people who commit similar acts and come from wealthy families.

Some people are just sick.

[fatbuckel]

26. Go after the parents....

[Brickbat]

28. What a waste, all the way around.

[mntleo2]

30. I am sad for this heartless child

...No I do not excuse her for what she has done, and I believe she knows right from wrong at 14. What is sad to me is her anger and lack of feeling for others and why she got that way. The girl has obviously suffered a great deal herself.

Until we start supporting families and seeing kids as our future instead of treating them as if they are burdens and only taking from society, we will see more like her. After all, if parents raising kids are seen as "doing nothing" instead of raising the next generation to care for us when they become adults, what reason would a kid like her think she was anything valuable to us? This attitude was codified into law with Welfare Reform that kids are not as important as saying, "Do you want fries with that?" The middle class and rich wildly applauded because they believed poor kids are nothing and not worth their parents' attention. Maybe they feel that way about ALL kids but for sure they were especially considering poor kids as pieces of sh** not worthy of anyone's time, not even from their own mothers. God forbid if they had a mom whose purpose in life was about them instead of making some rich guy richer!

As someone who has tried to work McJobs and support a family I know this is often the reason kids go wild. With no support, you can either work or manage teenagers, you cannot do both, unless you are in two places at once. There is *no* support for kids after they reach the age of 11 years old and these kids are often left on their own while Mom is at work. McJobs are often either early in the morning when the kid is supposed to get up and get to school (teens won't without parental supervision, or late at night when kids are supposed to be home (they party with their friends in your house and you come home to ...chaos).

Nobody will help you and you are left without any support ~ but plenty of blame when the kid goes wild. As the person above me so callously and ignorantly above said, "Arrest the parents!" Yeah right ...after you tell a parent how they can be in two places at once ...

If we changed one thing it would be to learn from this kid and others like her and support parents to BE parents.

My (sad and disgusted) 2 cents

Cat in Seattle

[Dappleganger]

33. Well said. nt

[WI_DEM]

35. how sad that some people can become so vicious and unfeeling.

[slackmaster]

36. Lock her up for life, slice up her brain and study it after she dies

:argh:

[geek tragedy]

41. One life ended, another already wasted. nt

[aikoaiko]

42. Was Life without Parole not an option?

:shrug:

Why should we ever let her out? Probably some kind of plea deal.

[Quantess]

47. An article about her victim, Muriah Huff

also just a young teenager, except she had more going for her.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/burlington_county_times/bct_news_details/article/26/2010/february/28/cinnaminson-girl-found-dead.html

[jayfish]

52. A Beautiful And Genuine Smile.

As compared to this horse shit:



:mad:

FSH