Friday, October 26, 2007

Gang member not done with court system

Tomorrow's headlines will focus on 17-year-old Tyree Feaster's three-year sentence for contempt of court. Unfortunately for Feaster, that's nothing compared to what he's facing at another hearing next month.

For background .. Feaster is refusing to testify against a fellow gang member who was charged with a night club shooting in which an 18-year-old woman was gunned down. The alleged shooter was released from jail this week because Feaster wouldn't cooperate and testify. Judge Unruh's three-year sentence will be tacked on to Feaster's existing juvenile plea deal which has him locked up til he's 21. So that means Feaster won't see the light of freedom til he's 24.

I just hung up the phone with prosecutors who tell me they've asked Judge Linda Tucci-Teodosio to declare Feaster a "Serious Youthful Offender." That's a new one to me. Apparently, teens with serious criminal histories can be labeled as an SYO and have adult time added on. In this case, prosecutors are asking for 13 more years -- 10 for manslaughter and 3 for the gun spec.

For those of you doing math at home ... that's age 24 for the current charges .. and now age 37 if Judge Teodosio agrees. He's 17 now .. and looking at 20 years of hard time. Two decades. All while the alleged shooter walks the streets free.

Not withstanding the pain of the victim's family here ... but seriously folks .. if someone doesn't get through to this young man soon and convince him that he needs to speak up and tell what happened, his solidarity and loyalty are going to cost him any chance he would have of turning his life around.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Being that he is a member of a gang, I think Tyree knows that if he cooperates with the prosecutor and cuts a deal for less time, he will have a hit placed on him the minute he walks out of jail. He probably feels safer behind bars than he does on the streets. Twenty years is a long time, but it is probably a safer bet that what he would face on the outside.

Anonymous said...

That's bologna. This kid is not safe anywhere that he goes. He is a menace and the prosecutors and the judge pegged this one right, for once. He had 1,2,3,4 at least that many chances to turn the ship around. I don't care if gang members would have him killed for "snitching", it was the best chance Feaster had for a real life and he blew it by choice.Forget that he is in a gang, if it is his fate to get shot by some opposing gang members because he named a murderer, then it is his fate. He's done for. Case dismissed.