Million Dollar Bonds for 3 LR Teens in (fatal home-invasion) Burglary... (LR, AR)

Three suspects appeared in a Little Rock courtroom this morning and pleaded not guilty to murder charges in a burglary-turned-shooting Tuesday afternoon that left a homeowner dead.

The three juveniles are all charged as adults in the killing of Maurice Clark, 67, at his home at 4 Lark Place, just south of Baseline Road.

Bonds for each of the teens, who are all from Little Rock, were set at one-million-dollars.

According to police reports read in court this morning, one of the teens told officers that the three suspects, along with a fourth person had gotten together before the burglary and decided to rob Clark's home. The fourth person reportedly led the others into Clark's home, striking him in the face with the butt of a rifle and knocking him to the ground.

While Clark pleaded for his life, the suspects demanded money, which he told them he didn't have.

He says Caffery and the fourth person came downstairs with guns and a flat screen TV, which they loaded into Clark's car in the carport. Kendrick said the fourth man went back inside and he heard two shots. When he asked him if he shot Clark, he said he only scared him.

The reports also reveal that when police arrived at Clark's home, they found him bleeding from the head. He was pronounced dead at Baptist Hospital just after 2:30.

As police were rushing to the scene, a witness pointed an officer on Baseline Road towards the fleeing car, and a pursuit began. The officer followed the suspects to Wakefield Drive, where they pulled into a yard and tried to run away before the three suspects were caught.

A cousin of my wife was shot and killed in Florida. He, too, did not have enough money. Oh yeh, the shooter was of the same color as these guys.
I keep a .45 between my right thigh and the console and a .25 in my pocket. And a neck knife on all my key chains.

Given the ages of the perps it is likely they could not even conceive of actual punishment happening to them, much less death. Their time horizons are probably not much more than a couple of hours. Talking to them about consequences to acts that will occur next year or next week is like talking Euskara to your five-year-old. It is simply not intelligible.

Age is one part of it but IQ is the major issue. Many of these street thugs are operating with IQs in the 70-80 range. They're borderline retarded. Whether they're burglarizing homes, robbing liquor stores, carjacking drivers or mugging pedestrians, they act impulsively, like animals, putting no thought into either planning or getting away with their crimes. They simply seize the moment. Need money? Let's rob the next place we drive past. Their low IQs make them easy to apprehend often within hours, if not minutes, from the scene of the crime.

Unfortunately they are often needlessly violent, killing compliant victims when it makes absolutely no sense to do so. In many cases,they'd have gotten away with their property crimes had they not attracted greater attention from law enforcement by turning what should have been a simple robbery into murder.

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