Hi guys,
My sister in law Chrissy sent this to me this to me. Since I am in Indiana. But this is from Pete Waldmeir who is a wonderful reporter for The Detroit News, I remember when I lived there how much I respected and admired him. But Chissy and him had been emailing him and he wrote this article and I wanted to share it with the rest of you. I know Chrissy emailed some of you who she had addresses for but I wanted everyone of my wonderful Thinster friends (and this includes all the new ones as well) to read it. You guys have been there from the day it happened and have been a wealth of strengh and support for both Chrissy and myself.
Here you go, it is wonderful written I feel.
Victim's family seeks closure as justice system drags its heels
By Pete Waldmeir / The Detroit News
The wheels of justice, they say, move slowly but grind exceedingly fine.
Christine Scandirito says she knows all about the slowly part. But she's not so certain that they need to grind so fine where the prosecution of her late husband Richard's alleged murderer is concerned.
"The court says they're going to try again to get this trial moving again on Monday," said Scandirito, 45, a part-time nurse and mother of two teen-aged daughters. "But who knows? It's been so terribly frustrating.
"They keep setting dates and getting us all worked up emotionally, then they stall or cancel. First one judge backed off, then another threw out the confession, and we had to wait while that was appealed.
"There have been at least six delays and four different prosecutors assigned in the last 14 months. The newest assistant prosecutor, Kenneth King, just got the case on Wednesday. That gives him only three days for preparation," Scandirito continued. "What kind of justice is this, anyway?"
Richard Alan Scandirito, 42, a Detroit Newspapers circulation supervisor, was brutally slain on Oct. 6, 1999, during a robbery while he was on his way to work at a Hamtramck distribution center.
An autopsy revealed that the murder weapon was his own Thermos bottle, which his killer used to shatter Scandirito's skull in several places. The victim's hands and arms also bore multiple stab wounds and other lacerations, inflicted when he tried to defend himself.
Scandirito's blood-soaked van was found a mile from his workplace. His body had been dumped in a darkened parking lot.
The prime suspect, a parole violator named Robert Person, turned himself in shortly after the murder. Person at first confessed to the killing to Detroit Police Homicide detectives, but later recanted.
Wayne County Circuit Judge Bruce Morrow, who is to begin the trial on Monday, at first kicked out that confession. But his decision was overturned by the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The charge against Person, first-degree felony murder, carries a sentence of life without parole if he is convicted. Is the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office ready this time?
"We are set and we are prepared to win," said King, 31, a three-year veteran of the prosecutor's homicide section. "It's not like this is all news to me. I'm sufficiently familiar with the case.
"I know the victim's wife and his family are upset, but delays like these sometimes are unavoidable. This guy deserves to go away for a long time, and he will," King added.
"I was a clerk in the homicide section back when this office handled the Malice Green murder and I saw the pictures of what happened to Green. This crime was even more gory than that. It was flat-out felony murder."
Scandirito's widow, Christine, says she wishes she could share King's confidence.
"My husband's father, Jasper, is 84 years old," she said. "His brothers, Jerry and Skip, and his sister Sharon and our daughters, Emily and Ellen, all want it to be over so that Rick can rest in peace."
Read Pete Waldmeir's column on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday in The Detroit News. Send e-mail to
[email protected].
I am going to be leaving tomorrow morning for Michigan and will be happy to see Chrissy and my Dad and 2 other brothers again. It will be hard what I will hear in court but it is necessary to go through this process for closure for all of us.
Thanks for reading and listening.
I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!
Love ya Sharon
[This message has been edited by Sassy (edited 02-10-2001).]
[This message has been edited by Sassy (edited 02-10-2001).]