Court-ordering offenders to wear electronic GPS saves lives
A Friday Night Appointment With A Saturday Night Special
The arguments went on all afternoon long. She called him a
punk. She said he was unable to make love to her properly
when he was drunk.
After he shot and killed her, a police officer took his
statement and wrote that her remarks "demoralized" her
assailant, her husband, the killer.
The crime scene didn't look right to the uniformed officers
who came when James L. Graham called the Friday evening of
March 8, 2008, to say he had shot his wife.
She presented a sad scene where she lay in a fetal position
on the floor, dying.
Anyone could see she was a goner. The .38 caliber bullet
made a neat 3/8-inch hole in her left temple and exited out
of the right side of her skull at a slightly downward angle,
a little to the rear of the imaginary lateral line between
her left and right ears.
The pool of blood in which she lay was beginning to
coagulate, though a thready pulse and her struggle to
breathe spoke volumes about what would turn out to be the
last few minutes of her life.
She died within minutes of her arrival at a local hospital.
A Friday Night Appointment With A Saturday Night Special
The arguments went on all afternoon long. She called him a
punk. She said he was unable to make love to her properly
when he was drunk.
After he shot and killed her, a police officer took his
statement and wrote that her remarks "demoralized" her
assailant, her husband, the killer.
The crime scene didn't look right to the uniformed officers
who came when James L. Graham called the Friday evening of
March 8, 2008, to say he had shot his wife.
She presented a sad scene where she lay in a fetal position
on the floor, dying.
Anyone could see she was a goner. The .38 caliber bullet
made a neat 3/8-inch hole in her left temple and exited out
of the right side of her skull at a slightly downward angle,
a little to the rear of the imaginary lateral line between
her left and right ears.
The pool of blood in which she lay was beginning to
coagulate, though a thready pulse and her struggle to
breathe spoke volumes about what would turn out to be the
last few minutes of her life.
She died within minutes of her arrival at a local hospital.
The shooting differed only in its severity from earlier attacks.
There was the time James kicked Rosie in the face with the
heel of his shoe. It bruised her eye and the entire side of
her face and head. In fact, he was still on probation for
that particular assault, something the Penal Code calls
Domestic Violence Causing Bodily Harm, when the fatal
argument occurred that Friday night - the night of the gun.
Then there was the time Rosie called police to show them the
damage done to their apartment a couple of months
previously.
The Grahams had moved out when it happened. No one
had lived there since.
The patrolman who responded noted in his arrest report that
he thought Mrs. Graham was just concerned that she not get
stuck paying for the damage. Then he arrested her for
criminal mischief..
It was the position of her body that made the officers
suspect they were looking at a case of premeditated murder,
of a man knowingly and intentionally loading a firearm and
setting out to use it to kill his wife. On their bed, they
found the six-shot revolver he used, a large quantity of
cartridges - 30 to 40 - and an empty ammunition box.
In the gun's cylinder, there were five live rounds and one
spent round under the hammer. A .38 caliber Arminius model,
gun experts say it's fairly rare, manufactured by a German
firm named Weihrauch, which named its product for the
mythical warrior chief, Hermann, fierce opposer of the
Romans who stopped the columns of the legions on the banks
of the Danube.
To an arms merchant, it's worth anywhere from $50 to $200.
It's a Saturday night special.
There was the time James kicked Rosie in the face with the
heel of his shoe. It bruised her eye and the entire side of
her face and head. In fact, he was still on probation for
that particular assault, something the Penal Code calls
Domestic Violence Causing Bodily Harm, when the fatal
argument occurred that Friday night - the night of the gun.
Then there was the time Rosie called police to show them the
damage done to their apartment a couple of months
previously.
The Grahams had moved out when it happened. No one
had lived there since.
The patrolman who responded noted in his arrest report that
he thought Mrs. Graham was just concerned that she not get
stuck paying for the damage. Then he arrested her for
criminal mischief..
It was the position of her body that made the officers
suspect they were looking at a case of premeditated murder,
of a man knowingly and intentionally loading a firearm and
setting out to use it to kill his wife. On their bed, they
found the six-shot revolver he used, a large quantity of
cartridges - 30 to 40 - and an empty ammunition box.
In the gun's cylinder, there were five live rounds and one
spent round under the hammer. A .38 caliber Arminius model,
gun experts say it's fairly rare, manufactured by a German
firm named Weihrauch, which named its product for the
mythical warrior chief, Hermann, fierce opposer of the
Romans who stopped the columns of the legions on the banks
of the Danube.
To an arms merchant, it's worth anywhere from $50 to $200.
It's a Saturday night special.
James admitted he pulled the trigger. But he had what he
thought was a good reason for doing it. He said she "came at
him" with a shiny butcher knife with a black handle.
There was a problem with his reasoning. The knife was
balanced on the back of her hand where she lay crumpled on
the floor.
It just didn't look right. Policemen see many scenes of
violence, particularly on a Friday night. Something about
this one just didn't look right.
They booked him in connection with a homicide investigation.
Evidence that came to light the next day led to a charge of
murder.
The landlord, Mr. Nils Guhlin, was stuck with cleaning up
the mess James and Rosie left after he shot her and killed
her.
He was at the crime scene to change the locks,
just in case the police would like to keep the evidence as
pristine as possible
What he happened to find changed the nature of the offense
in the eyes of police and prosecutors. There was a blood-
stained bullet hole in the headrest of a recliner next to a
window. On the window sill behind the chair, he found a
spent bullet. Mr. Guhlin called the police.
They came over right away, loaded
the chair and the bullet, and took them to the Austin
crime laboratory of the Department of Public Safety.
There, technicians examined what appeared to be bone
fragments, blood, and the projectile. They were able to
establish that the bullet resting on the windowsill behind
the chair was the one that passed through Mrs. James L.
Graham's head.
Death came twisting out of the muzzle of a cheap handgun
with brown plastic grips. It kept an appointment with a
battered housewife on a Friday night. Rosie didn't get up
out of her chair and come at James with a butcher knife. She
was sitting in her chair when he returned from the bedroom
with a gun in his hand and told her he was going to "end it
all." When he pointed the gun at her, she turned her head to
the right and the bullet drilled a path from the left side
of her head to the right side, went through the cushions of
the recliner where she was sitting, and wound up on the
windowsill behind her.
It was not the first time James Graham had shot someone.
Criminal records show he shot his own father in the chest
when he was only 17 years old because the man spanked him
for misbehavior. He shot a youthful friend in the face after
they argued.
A detective filed the charge of murder. A jury found him
guilty of the crime and the judge sentenced him to serve 25
years in the penitentiary.
Was all that necessary?
No. He could have done many things.
He could have left the house when he saw that he and Rosie
could not be civil to one another after drinking beer
through the afternoon hours, watching a basketball game with
a friend and arguing bitterly after the conclusion of a
favorite network game show.
Rosie could have left him many years before, never to
return. The two did neither. They hammered at each other
the chair and the bullet, and took them to the Austin
crime laboratory of the Department of Public Safety.
There, technicians examined what appeared to be bone
fragments, blood, and the projectile. They were able to
establish that the bullet resting on the windowsill behind
the chair was the one that passed through Mrs. James L.
Graham's head.
Death came twisting out of the muzzle of a cheap handgun
with brown plastic grips. It kept an appointment with a
battered housewife on a Friday night. Rosie didn't get up
out of her chair and come at James with a butcher knife. She
was sitting in her chair when he returned from the bedroom
with a gun in his hand and told her he was going to "end it
all." When he pointed the gun at her, she turned her head to
the right and the bullet drilled a path from the left side
of her head to the right side, went through the cushions of
the recliner where she was sitting, and wound up on the
windowsill behind her.
It was not the first time James Graham had shot someone.
Criminal records show he shot his own father in the chest
when he was only 17 years old because the man spanked him
for misbehavior. He shot a youthful friend in the face after
they argued.
A detective filed the charge of murder. A jury found him
guilty of the crime and the judge sentenced him to serve 25
years in the penitentiary.
Was all that necessary?
No. He could have done many things.
He could have left the house when he saw that he and Rosie
could not be civil to one another after drinking beer
through the afternoon hours, watching a basketball game with
a friend and arguing bitterly after the conclusion of a
favorite network game show.
Rosie could have left him many years before, never to
return. The two did neither. They hammered at each other
and did nothing to forestall or prevent Rosie's appointment
with death.
The crime of murder connected to domestic violence
toward a family member has no real respect for the
profession or social status of the victim. Education or
accomplishment - even money - can't possibly protect all the
people who might happen to fall prey to an enraged and
abusive member of the family.
For instance, just this past week a successful marriage
counselor, a lady who has taught anger management classes
for many years in Cleveland, fell victim to one of her
former students, a violent offender she married, a man who
was court-ordered to attend her counseling service.
A man killed his grandfather in a rural Central Texas
community located on I-35. It happened last week. The victim
was a revered and respected former mayor of the city.
The crime of murder connected to domestic violence
toward a family member has no real respect for the
profession or social status of the victim. Education or
accomplishment - even money - can't possibly protect all the
people who might happen to fall prey to an enraged and
abusive member of the family.
For instance, just this past week a successful marriage
counselor, a lady who has taught anger management classes
for many years in Cleveland, fell victim to one of her
former students, a violent offender she married, a man who
was court-ordered to attend her counseling service.
A man killed his grandfather in a rural Central Texas
community located on I-35. It happened last week. The victim
was a revered and respected former mayor of the city.
Man suspected of killing his grandfather, former Bruceville-Eddy mayor
A woman in Gatesville, Texas, went to the courthouse to try
to get an application for a protective order, but her ex-boyfriend, an ex-Marine who worked at a local state
penitentiary as a maintenance supervisor, lay in wait for
her, knocked her off her feet and shot her in the head
before mounting the steps of the old Victorian building and
ending his life with his own pistol. Video surveillance
clearly shows that he spotted the cameras, looked into their
unblinking electronic gaze, then went back to his vehicle
and waited.
Even when victims under a protective order die pleading with
penitentiary as a maintenance supervisor, lay in wait for
her, knocked her off her feet and shot her in the head
before mounting the steps of the old Victorian building and
ending his life with his own pistol. Video surveillance
clearly shows that he spotted the cameras, looked into their
unblinking electronic gaze, then went back to his vehicle
and waited.
Even when victims under a protective order die pleading with
9*1*1 operators to send someone to help them, numerous
courts have held that cities and states are protected by
sovereign immunity. They routinely dismiss wrongful death
suits due to a lack of jurisdiction over such allegations of
complaint.
The job of protecting women from the men they love is just
too big for police and courts to handle.
Or is it?
Is it really too much to expect officers, probation
departments, judges, parole officers and mental health
professionals to stop or prevent violent death in the home?
A woman with grown kids, a lady who lives in a
rural farming town on a back stretch of two-lane blacktop is
busy "dragging Texas into the 21st century by the hair,"
according to her husband, a former police officer and crime scene
investigator.
Utahna Gates, a forensic computer recovery specialist,
physical therapist assistant and data processing technician with local
government experience, has the whole Lone Star State for a
territory and the entire courts and corrections bureaucracy
to convert and sell on the efficiency of her product.
Who is going to pay for it?
The offenders.
That's right. I said the offenders.
When I say that, I mean the people who have been released on
bond, placed on probation or deferred adjudication, or sent
to alcohol rehab or because they don't stop whipping
up on the old lady's head.
courts have held that cities and states are protected by
sovereign immunity. They routinely dismiss wrongful death
suits due to a lack of jurisdiction over such allegations of
complaint.
The job of protecting women from the men they love is just
too big for police and courts to handle.
Or is it?
Is it really too much to expect officers, probation
departments, judges, parole officers and mental health
professionals to stop or prevent violent death in the home?
A woman with grown kids, a lady who lives in a
rural farming town on a back stretch of two-lane blacktop is
busy "dragging Texas into the 21st century by the hair,"
according to her husband, a former police officer and crime scene
investigator.
Utahna Gates, a forensic computer recovery specialist,
physical therapist assistant and data processing technician with local
government experience, has the whole Lone Star State for a
territory and the entire courts and corrections bureaucracy
to convert and sell on the efficiency of her product.
Who is going to pay for it?
The offenders.
That's right. I said the offenders.
When I say that, I mean the people who have been released on
bond, placed on probation or deferred adjudication, or sent
to alcohol rehab or because they don't stop whipping
up on the old lady's head.
It's an unfunded mandate the taxpayers don't have to support
with their dollars, for which officials don't have to
budget, and it only costs the perpetrators of domestic
violence - a serial crime that just about always escalates
in its intensity.
Under the terms of a new law, Texas H.R.1506, those
who have been charged with domestic violence may be ordered by a magistrate to participate
in an electronic monitoring program as a condition of release on bail.
They can be ordered to stay outside certain "electronic
fences" which are monitored by a central computerized
terminal that flashes alerts to the monitor who can contact police, judges and victims any time an offender goes within the prescribed and forbidden territory around
the places where abused spouses
live or work, or their children's schools.
What's more, the unit - an electronic "tattle tale" ankle
bracelet - monitors the arrestee for the use of alcohol in real
time.
It's not necessary to bring the offender in to interpret the
electronic records in the unit.
Start drinking and the unit sends a silent signal to the
monitor.
Violate the boundaries of a protective order by going to a
spouse's place of work, home, school - or anywhere else she
may be, and the signals go out immediately.
The bracelet has a voice function; it tells the wearer when
it's time to plug it in to recharge the batteries; tells the
wearer to call the office, or that the territory being
entered upon is forbidden under the terms of the agreement
that allows the person to stay out of jail.
The cost to the offender: $12.17 per day.
The cost to keep the offender in a jail certified by the
Texas Commission on Jail Standards is about $45 per day.
Either way, the choice to the offender is simple. Does he
wish to live free, or continue to live in bondage to the
State of Texas because he cannot seem to quit beating on his
woman.
Do the math. It's a no-brainer. To write one set of figures
requires red ink; the other requires only the standard black
and blue shades favored by bean counters everywhere.
The chief advantage is this. Experts on domestic violence
and protective orders say that GPS monitoring under house
arrest conditions is usually 100 percent effective. The
violence stops then and there when the bracelet goes on.
For more information, see Seymour Detection Services
They can be ordered to stay outside certain "electronic
fences" which are monitored by a central computerized
terminal that flashes alerts to the monitor who can contact police, judges and victims any time an offender goes within the prescribed and forbidden territory around
the places where abused spouses
live or work, or their children's schools.
What's more, the unit - an electronic "tattle tale" ankle
bracelet - monitors the arrestee for the use of alcohol in real
time.
It's not necessary to bring the offender in to interpret the
electronic records in the unit.
Start drinking and the unit sends a silent signal to the
monitor.
Violate the boundaries of a protective order by going to a
spouse's place of work, home, school - or anywhere else she
may be, and the signals go out immediately.
The bracelet has a voice function; it tells the wearer when
it's time to plug it in to recharge the batteries; tells the
wearer to call the office, or that the territory being
entered upon is forbidden under the terms of the agreement
that allows the person to stay out of jail.
The cost to the offender: $12.17 per day.
The cost to keep the offender in a jail certified by the
Texas Commission on Jail Standards is about $45 per day.
Either way, the choice to the offender is simple. Does he
wish to live free, or continue to live in bondage to the
State of Texas because he cannot seem to quit beating on his
woman.
Do the math. It's a no-brainer. To write one set of figures
requires red ink; the other requires only the standard black
and blue shades favored by bean counters everywhere.
The chief advantage is this. Experts on domestic violence
and protective orders say that GPS monitoring under house
arrest conditions is usually 100 percent effective. The
violence stops then and there when the bracelet goes on.
For more information, see Seymour Detection Services
YEA ANKLE MONITER OF THE FUTURE i JUST GOT A CALL FROM MY po HE SAYS THIS NEW MONITOR ON MY ANKLE IS TELLING THEM i DRANK , I HAVE HAD IT LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AND IT IS ALREADY LYING TO THEM , SO TELL ME WHY DID IT SEND THEM A SIGNAL TELLING THEM THAT I AM DRINKING IF I AM NOT DRINKING ? HE SAID THE JUDGE WILL BE TALKING TO ME AND HIS SUPERIOR ALSO , DOES THAT MEAN I WILL GO DO MY TIME SIMPLY BECAUSE THE DEVICE IN NOT ACCUATE IN IT'S FINDINGS ? , STRANGE AS IT MAY SEEM THIS COMES FROM THE VERY SAME CITY WHERE I JUST FILED AN OPEN RECORDS REQUEST AND BLOGGED ABOUT THE CITY/STATE PROBLEMS REFLECTION MY TESTING BUSINESS, THEY MAY SAVE A LIFE BUT THEY ALSO MAY SEND GOOD PEOPLE TO DO TIME UNWARRENTED
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