QUOTE |
Zachariah Blanton, a troubled teenager who confessed that he murdered a New Albany man with his rifle as he was firing at a pickup truck from a Jackson County overpass, has been given a sentence of 42 years in prison yesterday. Zacharias" deed which took place on 23, 2006 was labeled as "an act of terrorism" by the judge. The 18-year-old shot and killed Jerry Ross, 40, and wounded an Iowa man in another vehicle along Interstate 65, Jackson Circuit Judge William Vance said. He shot the two from an overpass near Seymour, about 60 miles south of Indianapolis. Rachel Davis, Ross' fiancee, held her plea for the maximum sentence from the witness stand and her message to Zachariah was very emotional. "He can know that as long as he is living, he is hated. Zachariah should have done the whole world a favor and turned the gun on himself," she said. Patrica Blanton, grandmother to the teen killer, said that Zachariah had a very troubled youth. He suffered several childhood surgeries and was molested by an older child. ''He's a good kid,'' she insisted. ''He's got a good heart, a gentle heart.'' Nevertheless, Judge Vance said that a troubled youth can never be an excuse for killing someone who didn't hurt you. |
International Level: New Activist / Political Participation: 17 1.7%