Thread: NC: Teen gets 22 years for attempted murder

http://www.thetimesnews.com/onset?id=18 ... ticle.html

Teen gets 22 years for attempted murder
By Keren Rivas / Times-News
March 26, 2007 - 10:15PM

GRAHAM — A Burlington teen described by a prosecutor as a leader for the Sureños 13 street gang was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison for his involvement in a 2005 attempted murder.

Rafael Jimenez Pacheco, 18, formerly of Loy Street, pleaded guilty Monday morning to attempted first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill inflicting serious injury, conspiracy to commit robbery with a deadly weapon, malicious assault in secret, and resisting an officer.

Jimenez-Pacheco was one of three teens who on Nov. 11, 2005, attacked Kenneth Dixon while he was driving his 1985 Cadillac on N.C. 49 North near Green Level.

Jason Boyd, a detective with the Alamance County Sheriff’s Department, testified during a sentencing hearing that at around 11:15 that night, Ashley Maria Anema, then 16 years old, flagged down Dixon and asked him to take her and her two friends, Jimenez-Pacheco and Miguel Matias, to a nearby mobile home park.

After they arrived at the address, the two boys started stabbing him. Dixon was stabbed close to 15 times in the back, neck and arms before he managed to get out of the car. One of the stabs punctured one of his lungs.

Boyd said the teens were planning to “finish him off” but they couldn’t find him and decided to make a run with the car, which Anema was driving. Detectives later found the car parked at an abandoned trailer in Seamster’s Mobile Home Park on N.C. 49.
Boyd said the teens were trying to get to Tulsa, Okla., to visit Anema’s aunt, who has also been identified as a gang member. He said the aunt told them that to be real gang members they had to stab or shoot somebody.

“Initially, they planned to rob people at ATMs with guns or knives. Then it escalated to robbing a car, and stabbing or killing the driver of the car,” Boyd said.
Anema and Jimenez-Pacheco managed to get on a bus to Oklahoma but were caught in Virginia and brought back to Alamance County.

Boyd said the three teens were all members of the Sureños 13 street gang, also known as Sur13 and Banditos. He said Jimenez-Pacheco, a.k.a. “Loco,” had a leadership position in the gang, which led investigators to believe he was the brains behind the assault.
Defense attorney Bob Craig said there was no evidence that showed his client played a bigger part in the crime than the other two co-defendants. He said it was Anema’s aunt who came up with the idea of robbing somebody and that his client simply followed along like the others.

Assistant District Attorney Lori Goins said that Jimenez-Pacheco not only was a leader of the gang but was also the oldest of the three. She asked the judge to give him the maximum sentence the law allowed.

“This crime was outrageous,” she said. “Mr. Dixon is lucky to be alive.”
After listening to both sides, Superior Court Judge R. Allen Baddour Jr. sentenced Jimenez-Pacheco to a total of 22 to 28 years in prison.

In September, a different judge sentenced 17-year-old Matias to 12 to 15 years in prison. Anema’s case is still pending.

Dixon, who decided not to take the stand, said he was pleased with the sentence. He said he would have liked for Matias to receive a sentence similar to the one Jimenez-Pacheco received.
Goins said the sentence was a statement to gang members in Alamance County that “we have no tolerance for gangs and what they do.”

For Jimenez-Pacheco’s mother, Guadalupe Jimenez, the sentence was an injustice. The mother of seven children said her son did not orchestrate the assault. She said he did what he did because he had been drinking and consuming drugs.

“I don’t agree with (the sentence),” Jimenez said. “I feel terrible.”
She added, “I’m 51 years old. When he gets out of jail, I might no longer be alive.”
She said she doesn’t understand why her youngest son got involved with the gang. She said he was a good kid who was trying to finish school. “His father and I were always telling him to stay in school and out of trouble,” she said.
Jimenez said she plans to appeal the decision.

For Jimenez-Pacheco’s mother, Guadalupe Jimenez, the sentence was an injustice. The mother of seven children said her son did not orchestrate the assault. She said he did what he did because he had been drinking and consuming drugs.

“I don’t agree with (the sentence),” Jimenez said. “I feel terrible.”

Hang in there Mom. I'm sure we've got criminal advocates on the way. The court should make allowances for that drinking and drug use. That should have made a difference.

For Jimenez-Pacheco’s mother, Guadalupe Jimenez, the sentence was an injustice. The mother of seven children said her son did not orchestrate the assault. She said he did what he did because he had been drinking and consuming drugs.

“I don’t agree with (the sentence),” Jimenez said. “I feel terrible.”
She added, “I’m 51 years old. When he gets out of jail, I might no longer be alive

I can't believe his mother! She blamed the attempted murder on drinking and drugs. These kind of people just don't understand why there are laws in the first place. Yes, unlike some 3rd world countries, America has laws. And we don't like gangs!
Where was she when he was out joining gangs and getting into trouble? It's like the gang members can commit a slew of crimes and do anything they want, and heaven forbid if someone gets in their way.
I doubt the mother is legal. She wails "I'm 51 years old" "When he gets out, I might no longer be alive". Well boo-hoo. I don't feel sorry for her, because she neglected to be a mother.

http://www.thetimesnews.com/onset?id=83 ... ticle.html

Teenager gets four years for stabbing
By Keren Rivas / Times-News
April 17, 2007 3:00 AM
GRAHAM — Arlene Anema knows that what her oldest daughter, Ashley Marie, did on the night of Nov. 11, 2005, was wrong.

Still, she wonders if the incident would have been prevented had local authorities acted when she asked them for help.

On that night, Ashley, then 16, and two friends, Rafael Jimenez Pacheco and Miguel Matias, stabbed Kenneth Dixon 13 times while he was giving them a ride to a trailer park on N.C. 49 North near Green Level.

Dixon, who jumped out of the car to save his life, suffered nerve damage on his left arm and a punctured lung as a result of the attack.

On Monday morning, Ashley pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon.

“I’m sorry for what happened,” said Arlene Anema. But, she added, “We asked for help.”

Anema and her five children moved to Alamance County from California in an effort to get away from gangs and other bad influences.

Despite the environment change, Ashley started showing signs of trouble when she was 15 years old. She ran away from home and refused to go to school. She started associating with gang members.

One of her aunts, who lived in Oklahoma and seemed to have influence over the teen, was also a gang member.

In fact, it was this aunt who police say gave Ashley and her two friends the idea to flag a car to get a ride and then stab or kill the driver in order to get the car.

Ashley had been put on juvenile probation, which she violated prior to the incident. It was at that point that Arlene and her husband, Brian Anema, say they asked police and probation officers to do something about it.

“We asked them to lock her up,” Brian Anema says. “They told us to wait until she committed a crime and then they would do something.”

He says that if the teen would have been “locked up” for four or five months when she violated her probation, maybe she would have learned a lesson and stayed away from trouble.

“They failed us big time,” Brian said. “The system failed us.”

BECAUSE OF HER age, the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention cannot confirm or deny that Ashley Anema was ever on probation.

In exchange for her guilty plea, the prosecution dropped the most serious charge of attempted murder and other related charges.

Assistant District Attorney Lori Goins said Ashley has cooperated with the prosecution since she was arrested. She also helped police identify the two codefendants in the case and find the knives used during the incident.

However, the fact that she cooperated with the investigation didn’t minimize her participation in the crime, Goins said.

She asked the judge to give the teen two consecutive sentences.

Defense attorney Rick Champion, on the other hand, asked for a consolidated sentence. He said Ashley has already spent 17 months in jail waiting for her case to be disposed. Champion also said Ashley has received threatening letters while in jail. Her family has also been harassed, he said.

He added that though the victim thought the teens were going to run him over with the car after he jumped, there was no evidence that Ashley, who was driving, had attempted to do so.

Superior Court Judge R. Allen Baddour Jr. sided with the defense and sentenced Ashley to a minimum of four years and a maximum of 5 1/2 years in prison.

He told Ashley that while she cannot change what she did, she can learn from her mistakes and change the people she associates with in the future. “Come out different than you went in,” Baddour told the teen. He also ordered her to get a GED and to receive substance abuse treatment while in prison.

Ashley’s mother says she has already seen a change in her daughter’s attitude. She just wishes that the change had come before things escalated to an attempted murder charge.

“I hope other people can get help for their kids when they need it to avoid this to happen again,” Anema said.

Jimenez-Pacheco, 18, and Matias, 17, are serving sentences of a minimum of 22 years and 12 years respectively for their participation in the crime.