Posted on 11/16/2005 4:45:54 PM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
THAT is premeditation, right there. Completely inconsistent with the idea that he "just snapped."
He had to PLAN to take those guns and take them in the house with him. HE anticipated a confrontation and a violent outcome.
This is a death penalty case.
I've been in the business for almost 30 years, I've heard a lot of claims that somebody 'just snapped' but never seen it proved in court. Talk is cheap, when you get people under oath the facts come out, and usually the person who supposedly 'just snapped' has actually 'just escalated'. They usually haven't killed somebody before (although believe it or not there are exceptions to that!) but you can almost always discern a pattern of increasingly violent behavior. Baby steps are far more common than one big step, especially to a double murder.
You could be right but I was reading (wish I hadn't) her posts. I'll be honest. At first I thought maybe "baby" when she kept talking about a plan. Maybe as you say it was premeditated but it could also have started out as him planning on making them release her and intending to run away together.
May?!
I never said he shouldn't get the death penalty. AND if he went berserk once, he is capable of doing it again. This was his first time.
sw
Good one, blu :)
See ya all tomorrow..sw
I join in prayer for all those who are suffering from this loss!
As a homeschool mom, I agree. The article wasn't slanted against homeschooling, just stating a fact.
However, you have to understand why we tend to jump whenever it is mentioned. We're under a microscope. (In fact, I know a homeschool mom who uses that word whenever her children are misbehaving in public. She just looks at them and says, "Microscope." LOL. That's all she has to say because they know that, as homeschoolers, they're under one).
Also, whenever a horrible crime is committed by a homeschool parent or student, homeschooling becomes the main issue. There are calls for more legislation. And we have to deal with even more funny looks and stupid comments from other people.
To the contrary, when a public school teacher or student commits a crime, legislators don't consider shutting down the schools. Many schools (like our local schools) are riddled with drugs. If homeschool homes were riddled with drugs, there'd be calls for all of homeschooling to be shut down.
So, that's why we jump at the mention. But your post is right - this article is not slanted against it.
And so it begins. Amazing, but it's true that they could stretch it that far - that if the kid had gone to school, his psychological problems might've been acknowledged and addressed. Which could lead to: Maybe the state should require psychological evaluations of homeschoolers.
It seems so farfetched, but here in my state a homeschool family with adopted children was charged with starving them. Legislation was introduced to require us to submit medical forms to the public schools. So far, it has been squashed. But, oddly, the state's CPS agency itself had been visiting the family on a regular basis and never noticed the kids starving. So who did the state go after? Homeschoolers, of course.
Pretty much the same story. Older boyfriend, young teen girl.
The father stood by her during the trial, but she was convicted and sent to prison.
The phone rings at 7 in the morning and your son leaves the house. You don't notice any of this?
He deserves nothing from his parents if they were unaware of his despicable behaviour with a young girl.
Hate to say it, but you are right. The computer is a powerful tool. Hope this will be a wake-up call for parents to monitor their children more closely.
Did you read the comments at the bottom of the page you linked? A poster suggests Ludwig kidnapped another girl this summer.
My friend's 15-year-old mentally retarded niece had such software installed...but was able to bypass it by getting help from friends at school. (For example, she started launching the browser a different way that wasn't recognized by the software installation.) Each time the protection was changed and improved, she'd "find" (read, "be told") another way to bypass it.
So if you install this software, don't just assume it's working. For example, try using a search tool (in Windows, go to START, then Search, and be sure to set it to search within files, not just filenames) occasioinally to see if you find inappropriate words on the hard drive, etc.
Apparently not. See post 73.
Planning is inconsistent with "snapping". And it looks like he did a lot of planning (brought guns, brought car full of gas, Email messages, etc.) and has done this before. Had he really gone berserk, he might have shot one person but not two - he would have shot one and fled alone. The eyewitnesses are probably going to testify that he hunted the parents down - since the other kid managed to hide in a bathroom. He had a plan, and he coolly and methodically executed it.
I stand by my prediction. When the facts come out, you're going to see a lot of previous problems that were ignored or minimized. The penalty phase particularly is going to be horrendous.
I saw that. hmmmmm
Reportedly, Ludwig shot the father in the back of the head as was being escorted from the house. The mother's body was found sitting with a blanket over her legs, so it doesn't sound like he "hunted the parents down," either.
As far as what some kid posts on a website, I place no real credibility in it.
About those "warning signals" that a kid is going to go astray, what about Kara? She was a rebellious 14 year old, who grew up way too fast. Sending nude pics of herself to the boyfriend, having sex with him, disobeying her parents by staying out ALL night..my god..her poor parents had their hands full. She was out of control. No telling WHAT she and David were cooking up.
Which leads to the question - if he shot the father in the back of the head, why was the mom still sitting? Wouldn't she have jumped up if she heard a shot? Or, if she was shot first, why would the dad merely escort the kid out of the house (and why would he turn his back on him?)
Lot of unanswered questions here. But whatever else turns up, if what we've heard so far is accurate it's enough to convince me that this was not voluntary manslaughter (i.e. heat of passion) but a planned execution. If the facts continue to pan out this way, it's clearly a DP case and I hope the prosecutor goes for it.
The police seem to be downplaying that possibility for now, but the evidence isn't fully developed yet. The computers are going to be an interesting source of information, and I'm sure the P.D. boffins are already taking them apart.
Of course, there are all sorts of intermediate possibilities - that she knew he was going to "take her away" but not that he was going to execute her parents as part of the plan.
And she does sound like an out of control kid . . . I do hope that she was not in on the murder plans, that would be WAY out of control.
I will note that an old doctor friend of mine used to say that crazy people find other crazy people to keep them company. Her poor parents, indeed! (I also feel sorry for HIS parents. It's mighty hard to believe that your son is a monster.)
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