danielle
01-04-2005, 06:02 AM
This is the original thread I wrote about my uncle, a violent offender who served many years in prison, was released, and then was murdered. The thread has been closed for a long time and there's no reason to open it now.
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3979
I meant to update it a long time ago, but never did. The man who killed my uncle pleaded guilty (in order to avoid the death penalty) and received a 20 year sentence for my uncle's death. He was sentenced on the day before Halloween 2003.
As part of the plea process, this man had to tell how he killed my uncle. We'd always been led to believe my uncle had been shot in the head. This was not so. He was hit over and over in the back of the head with a hatchet/meat clever. I don't know why that mattered to me, but it just cause these horrible, greusome images in my mind.
I don't think about the man who killed my uncle. I don't focus on his death. It is his life, his legacy, his memory, and his love that I remember. A part of me is also glad this guy didn't get the death penalty, though this was his second murder (he was on parole for a life sentence at the time of his first one).
On a positive note, I was contacted by my uncle's grandson through the original thread. How he found it, I don't know. He didn't even know his grandfather was dead, much less how he had died. I'd never met this young man before, but he and my family have since had regular communication. That alone was a great comfort and I think my uncle would have been proud.
My uncle's tombstone has his dates and name, of course. It also has a Native American man on a horse and says "The Old Man from the Mountains..." It's funny, but I really wish he could see it. I think he would have loved that most of all. He will forever be the Man from the Mountains.
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3979
I meant to update it a long time ago, but never did. The man who killed my uncle pleaded guilty (in order to avoid the death penalty) and received a 20 year sentence for my uncle's death. He was sentenced on the day before Halloween 2003.
As part of the plea process, this man had to tell how he killed my uncle. We'd always been led to believe my uncle had been shot in the head. This was not so. He was hit over and over in the back of the head with a hatchet/meat clever. I don't know why that mattered to me, but it just cause these horrible, greusome images in my mind.
I don't think about the man who killed my uncle. I don't focus on his death. It is his life, his legacy, his memory, and his love that I remember. A part of me is also glad this guy didn't get the death penalty, though this was his second murder (he was on parole for a life sentence at the time of his first one).
On a positive note, I was contacted by my uncle's grandson through the original thread. How he found it, I don't know. He didn't even know his grandfather was dead, much less how he had died. I'd never met this young man before, but he and my family have since had regular communication. That alone was a great comfort and I think my uncle would have been proud.
My uncle's tombstone has his dates and name, of course. It also has a Native American man on a horse and says "The Old Man from the Mountains..." It's funny, but I really wish he could see it. I think he would have loved that most of all. He will forever be the Man from the Mountains.