LostAmerican
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- Feb 20, 2011
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It was a nightmarish crime that shocked the nation back in 1994 — and little Derrick Lemon was the 8-year-old hero whose heartbreaking story touched millions.
But 16 years after he sat on a phonebook in Cook County Juvenile Court to bravely testify how he’d unsuccessfully struggled to stop two young boys from throwing his 5-year-old brother to his death from a 14th-floor window at the Ida B. Wells housing project, Lemon was back in a courtroom Monday.
This time, Lemon was the villain. Now 24, the fully-grown Lemon is “a very dangerous person,” Judge Thomas Hennelly said, sentencing Lemon to 71 years in prison for murdering his aunt’s boyfriend at a family barbecue in March 2006.
Lemon’s lawyers and family had begged Hennelly for leniency. They asked him to consider the lasting trauma to Lemon of witnessing the headline-grabbing 1994 murder of tiny Eric Morse, who was thrown to his death by two boys — 10 and 11 years old — angry that he’d refused to steal candy for them. Lemon twice tried to hang on to his brother but let go when one of the boys bit his hand. He ran down 14 flights of stairs in a tragic attempt to “catch” Morse.
Hennelly acknowledged that “Few people appear in front of me or in this building that had underwent the severe, horrible experience that he did as an 8-year-old child watching his brother being killed before his very own eyes.”
Read more at:
Boy who watched 1994 murder of brother gets 71 years in prison - Chicago Sun-Times
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I remember the story of the 5 year old who, refusing to steal for the older boys, was thrown to his death from a 14th floor window. I thought Chicago should have memorialize him for not allowing himself to be corrupted like older children. It might get children thinking about their own lives before it's too late.
But the kids who committed the crime were already long past being helped.
Read:
5-year-old Eric Morse's killers: Growing up behind bars
5-year-old Eric Morse's killers: Growing up behind bars - chicagotribune.com
But 16 years after he sat on a phonebook in Cook County Juvenile Court to bravely testify how he’d unsuccessfully struggled to stop two young boys from throwing his 5-year-old brother to his death from a 14th-floor window at the Ida B. Wells housing project, Lemon was back in a courtroom Monday.
This time, Lemon was the villain. Now 24, the fully-grown Lemon is “a very dangerous person,” Judge Thomas Hennelly said, sentencing Lemon to 71 years in prison for murdering his aunt’s boyfriend at a family barbecue in March 2006.
Lemon’s lawyers and family had begged Hennelly for leniency. They asked him to consider the lasting trauma to Lemon of witnessing the headline-grabbing 1994 murder of tiny Eric Morse, who was thrown to his death by two boys — 10 and 11 years old — angry that he’d refused to steal candy for them. Lemon twice tried to hang on to his brother but let go when one of the boys bit his hand. He ran down 14 flights of stairs in a tragic attempt to “catch” Morse.
Hennelly acknowledged that “Few people appear in front of me or in this building that had underwent the severe, horrible experience that he did as an 8-year-old child watching his brother being killed before his very own eyes.”
Read more at:
Boy who watched 1994 murder of brother gets 71 years in prison - Chicago Sun-Times
------------------------------------------------------------------
I remember the story of the 5 year old who, refusing to steal for the older boys, was thrown to his death from a 14th floor window. I thought Chicago should have memorialize him for not allowing himself to be corrupted like older children. It might get children thinking about their own lives before it's too late.
But the kids who committed the crime were already long past being helped.
Read:
5-year-old Eric Morse's killers: Growing up behind bars
5-year-old Eric Morse's killers: Growing up behind bars - chicagotribune.com
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