murder – Page 3 – Homeschoolers Anonymous

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Daniel Paul Jones

March 7, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial TeamLeave a comment

Series note: “When Homeschoolers Turn Violent” is a joint research project by Homeschoolers Anonymous and Homeschooling’s Invisible Children. Please see the Introduction for detailed information about the purpose and scope of the project.

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

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Daniel Paul Jones

On December 5, 2012, 19-year-old Daniel Paul Jones from Longview, Texas, along with two other individuals, murdered Ronnie Joe Gamage Jr.

The act was gruesome. Daniel and the others lured the mentally disabled Gammage into the woods, beat him, cut his throat, and then set his dead body on fire. The victim’s body was abandoned in a pasture and was not found until December 19, two weeks later.

Daniel was the adopted son of Richard Jones, the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Longview. According to news reports, Daniel had been “a straight-A student at Christian Heritage School” and had “no disciplinary problems.” He was “a key member of the Christian Heritage School soccer and basketball teams.” After high school, he was briefly enrolled at Kilgore College.

Daniel had been homeschooled until 6th grade, when he was placed in Christian Heritage School because his adopted mother had grown tired of homeschooling him due to both lack of energy and problems with Daniel. Daniel’s brother (also adopted), on the other hand, was homeschooled straight through high school graduation. The Jones family was active in their local homeschool group.

After pleading guilty, Daniel was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Andrew Jondle

March 7, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team3 Comments

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

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Andrew Jondle

Andrew Jondle was 20 years old in 2010 when he used his own parents’ scythe and a piece of pipe to brutally murder them.

The Jondle family moved from the Silicon Valley in California to Polk County, Oregon in 2000. After 25 years of working as a software engineer, David Jondle and his wife Marilyn were “tired of corporate life” and wanted to pursue organic farming. Inspired by Joel Salatin’s book “You Can Farm,” they settled into a 210-acre sustainable form. (Joel Salatin at one point agreed to teach Jondles how to farm.) They called it Abundant Life Farm.

Other reasons provoked the move to Oregon beyond the pursuit of an idyllic farming life. Andrew’s parents were concerned about raising him and his siblings (Wayne and Luke) in a “corrupting” place like California. The rural Northwest “felt more like God’s country to them.” So they made the move, and Marilyn homeschooled all three of the children.

Wayne, the oldest son, did not like the farming life due to suffering terrible hay fever; as soon as he was old enough, he joined the military. The middle son Luke got married and relocated to Salem. Andrew was left alone with his parents. He was “bored to tears” with farming, but reportedly intended to take over the business.

At some point, however, Andrew — barely out of his teens — began a sexual relationship with a 46-year-old woman named Cindy Lou Beck. Cindy Lou had a history of criminal activity: felony convictions for theft and criminal mistreatment. Needing money to pay rent, Cindy Lou used “psychic channeling” to convince Andrew that he had to kill his parents. According to reports, Andrew’s “intellectual capacities were limited, which left him vulnerable to manipulation.” Cindy Lou told him that “animal or tree spirits” told her that his parents “needed to die.” He drove to his parents’ farm, tricked his father into coming outside, and then attacked him with a scythe. When his mother came out and saw the attack, Andrew beat her to death with a pipe. His parents’ bodies were discovered the next day by a water delivery person. When police arrived, they described the scene as “gruesome.”

Andrew was charged with aggravated murder, murder, and burglary. In 2011, he was sentenced to at least 50 years in prison.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Robert Holguin and Accomplice

March 7, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team4 Comments

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Robert Holguin and Accomplice

On February 26, 2005, 13-year-old Robert Holguin and a 12-year-old accomplice (whose name was never publicized) used a skateboard to murder 87-year-old Gerald O’Malley.

On February 26, 2005, 13-year-old Robert Holguin and a 12-year-old accomplice used a skateboard to murder 87-year-old Gerald O'Malley. — On February 26, 2005, 13-year-old Robert Holguin and a 12-year-old accomplice used a skateboard to murder 87-year-old Gerald O’Malley.

The event, dubbed the “Skateboard Murder,” stunned the town of San Luis Obispo, California. Gerald was described as “a slight and hobbled man who used a walker on bad days and a cane on good ones.” Robert and his accomplice attacked the elderly man in his trailer after taunting him about stealing his car. Robert hit Gerald twice in the back of the head with a skateboard; when that failed to kill, he struck him three more times. The two kids drove off with Gerald’s 1995 Ford Explorer, later abandoning it.

Both kids came from troubled families. Their fathers were convicted felons. Their mothers were divorced and struggled financially due to the fathers’ failure to pay child support. Robert — who has 6 siblings — was enrolled in public school a year prior to the attack. He had never been in trouble with the law before. Robert’s mother said, however, he had recently made “new friends” and was experiencing “mood swings.” She shared those concerns with his schools’ administration and, at some point after that, withdrew Robert from public school. At the time of the murder, both Robert and his accomplice were homeschooled in one form or another. News reports said they were “home-schooled or enrolled in a continuation program” as well as “associated with the Templeton Unified School District home-school program.”

Robert was charged with murder, elder abuse, burglary, and car theft. He was sentenced to a minimum of 7 years in a state detention facility. His accomplice was only charged with burglary.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Joseph Hall

March 7, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team2 Comments

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

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Joseph Hall

In May 2011, 10-year-old Joseph Hall shot his father Jeffrey at point blank range with his father’s own gun. The murder made national headlines not only because of Joseph’s young age but also because the boy’s father was a Neo-Nazi and a regional director of the National Socialist Movement, a white separatist group.

Joseph’s home life has been described as extremely troubling. His parents divorced when he was young and their custody battle raged for years. He experienced years of abuse, being beaten regularly by his dad. Child protective services were called to his family’s home 23 times, beginning when Joseph was only 3 months old. Unfortunately, no abuse could be substantiated.

He began experiencing behavioral and emotional issues and learning challenges in pre-school. His father indoctrinated him into his white supremacy beliefs. Both in public school and at home, Joseph lashed out. He reportedly “hit his sisters and his stepmother, stabbed classmates at school with pencils and once tried to strangle a teacher with a telephone cord.” With “a history of severe aggressive behavior,” he was kicked out of nine schools. Joseph was ultimately withdrawn from public school to be homeschooled. His father was the one to homeschool him, despite having only completed 11th grade himself.

Jeffrey Hall, the father, was part of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi organization labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Jeffrey educated his son on how to “patrol” the Mexican-American border and how to operate guns.

Joseph decided to murder his father because he thought his father was going to divorce his stepmother and break up their family. After the murder, while he was being interrogated, Joseph said that, “I didn’t want to do it. It’s just that he hurts us.”

In 2013, Joseph was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced by the Riverside County Superior Court to 10 years in a state juvenile correction facility.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Nehemiah Griego

March 6, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team4 Comments

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Nehemiah Griego

On an early morning in January of 2013, 15-year-old Nehemiah Griego shot his mother and younger brother to death in bed, walked into another room and killed his two young sisters, then patiently waited five hours for his father to return home from an overnight volunteer shift at a rescue mission. Nehemiah proceeded to kill his father as well.

The Griego family was well known in their home city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Greg, Nehemiah’s father, was a former pastor at the city’s Calvary Chapel. He was a “born-again gang member” who lived a public life of service: ministering at the local fire department, at a detention center, and through the prison ministry run by Calvary Chapel. Greg and his wife Sarah had ten children. Their family was involved in the local homeschooling community. In fact, the Calvary Chapel that Greg pastored at hosted New Mexico’s annual homeschooling conventions.

Sarah was a stay-at-home mother who homeschooled Nehemiah and his siblings. From a young age, Nehemiah had a love for music. He became a talented musician, playing guitar, drums, and bass at church services at his family’s Calvary Chapel. He was highly involved with the church, going on mission trips to Mexico and helping with youth ministry. In the tradition of the men of his family, he wanted to service in the military.

Unfortunately, Nehemiah had a dark side as well. He long had violent fantasies about mass killings followed by his own suicide. Those fantasies were what ultimately crystallized into his carried-out plan to kill his family and others. In all, he killed his father Greg (51), his mother Sarah, (40), and his siblings Zephania (9), Jael (5), and Angelina (2). He was proud of his deadly accomplishments, even texting a picture of his mother’s dead body to his 12-year-old girlfriend. After the murders, he reloaded his weapons and drove away in his family’s van. He intended to also kill his girlfriend’s family and then drive to a local Wal-Mart and go on a rampage there. Accounts are unclear why, but he instead drove to his family’s Calvary Chapel and told a church security guard that his family was dead. The security guard drove the boy home and then called 911.

Nehemiah ultimately confessed to the murders. In February of 2013, a jury charged him with five counts of first-degree murder and three counts of child abuse.

On January 23, 2013, surviving relatives of the Griego family issued a statement about Nehemiah, saying they were “deeply concerned about the portrayal in some media of Nehemiah as some kind of a monster.” While they admitted that “something went terribly wrong,” they stressed that “There is so much more to the Nehemiah we know than what the media is portraying. We know him as a bright, curious, and incredibly talented young man. He was a brother, nephew, grandson, and cousin.”

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Christopher Gribble

March 6, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team1 Comment

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Christopher Gribble

On October 4, 2009, 19-year-old Christopher Gribble and three accomplices entered the Mont Vernon, New Hampshire home of Kimberly Cates and used a knife and a machete to kill her and severely maim her daughter Jaime.

Christopher was homeschooled by his mother Tamara and participated in Boy Scouts. His father Richard said that he and his wife “tried to teach their son right from wrong” and aimed “to instill a set of values in him.” During Christopher’s trial, more than one witness “praised the Gribble’s dedication to their sons.” Christopher, however, claimed that he was abused by his mother so extremely that he “wanted to kill her.” Christopher said that, as a child, she would “regularly pin him to the couch and told him not to make any noise while she popped acne and other sores on his back and legs.” His mother admitted in court that she had spanked him so hard when he was 5 that he wet himself and she broke the spoon used during the spanking.

Acquaintances of Christopher said he was “awkward, laughed nervously and just could not pick up on social cues.” His father Richard also stated that, though Christopher was “intelligent and eloquent,” he had “trouble telling when someone wanted to stop talking to him or picking up on other cues.”

Described as a thrill killing, the murder became known widely as “The Mont Vernon Murder.” It was gruesome, with Kimberly hacked to death with 32 blows to her head and torso; Jaime suffered 18 wounds herself. Christopher himself used a knife, while one of his accomplices used a machete. When later interrogated about the murder, Christopher was excited to talk about it. Donna Brown, Christopher’s attorney, said that, “Something rose up from inside him to the surface and could not be controlled.”

Christopher entered a plea for insanity. He personally blamed his homeschooling upbringing for his actions, saying that he “wanted to get out, and have a real social life.” However, on March 25, 2011, a jury rejected that plea and Christopher was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Christopher had three other accomplices, who are all serving prison time as well — one of them, Steven Spader, is also serving a life sentence.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Kishon Green

March 6, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial TeamLeave a comment

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Kishon Green

In February 2008, 34-year-old Kishon Green stabbed his 10-year-old son and his son’s 13-year-old half-brother to death.

Kishon’s parents, James and Rachel Green, said they tried to teach Kishon as a kid to “live based on the Bible’s teachings” and had “love and affection” for him. Growing up, Kishon had difficulties with school, his IQ being 70 — “the generally recognized borderline for mental retardation.” As a young child, he ranked low on tests in elementary and middle public schools. He eventually was withdrawn from school and homeschooled for his high school years, eventually receiving his high school diploma as a homeschooler.

Kishon had a long history of cocaine and alcohol abuse. He personally blamed the murders on his drug use, explaining that, “I have a heart. I’m not a cold-blooded killer.”

Three weeks before the killings, Kishon had moved back in with the boys’ mother, Tiffany Courtney. The day of the murders, he had borrowed Tiffany’s car for a job interview and then picked up the boys at school. He killed the boys, hid their bodies in a closet and a bathroom, and then proceeded to pick up Tiffany from work. After getting in an argument with her, he attacked her as well, stabbing her repeatedly as well as striking her with a baseball bat. He smoked a cigarette, washed his hands, changed his clothes, and then left Tiffany’s apartment. Tiffany managed to call 911, still unaware her sons were dead.

In June 2012, despite opposition from prosecutors, a judge ruled there was “overwhelming evidence” that Kishon was “mentally retarded” and thus could not be sentenced to death. The following August, Kishon pled guilty to capital murder of the two boys and attempted murder of his girlfriend. He was sentenced to prison for life without parole.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Jake Evans

March 5, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team2 Comments

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Jake Evans

In 2012, Jake Evans — a 17-year-old boy from Aledo, Texas — called 911. In a calm, monotone voice, he informed the operator that he had riddled his mother and sister with bullets.

According to the local sheriff, the motive for the murders was “a big mystery.” While Jake’s father was out of town and his two older sisters were not home, Jake used a .22 revolver to kill his mother (48) and sister (15). The sheriff noted that Jake “reloaded the .22 revolver at least once during the shootings.” He then called 911 and had a 25-minute phone call with the operator. When the operator asked if he knew they were dead for sure, he simply answers, “Yes.” Chillingly, he adds,

It’s weird, I wasn’t even really angry with them. It just kind of happened. I’ve been kind of planning on killing for a while now… This is probably selfish of me to say, but to me, I felt like they were suffocating me in a way. Obviously, you know, I’m pretty – I guess – evil.

Jake and Mallory (the sister he murdered) were both being homeschooled at the time. Jake was withdrawn from Aledo High School his sophomore year for homeschooling, Mallory from McAnally Intermediate in 2010. His family lived on two acres in a gated community and his mother was herself a public school teacher and assistant principle for 15 years. They attended a Methodist church in Aledo for years, but recently changed to a Catholic church. Former classmates of Jake described the teenager as the “nicest kid,” albeit “quiet, shy.”

In January 2013, Jake gave a written confession to the murders. He said he was inspired by Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween remake. He also confessed that he intended to kill not only his mom and younger sister, but also his older sisters and grandparents.

Jake was “charged with capital murder and denied bail.” His case was in limbo in August 2013 due to proposed changes to Texas’s capital murder statute.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Hugo Clayton

March 5, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team9 Comments

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Hugo Clayton

In November 2003, Hugo Clayton — a 14-year-old boy from Guatemala — stabbed his adopted mother to death over a dispute about working in his adopted father’s painting business.

Hugo’s early childhood in Guatemala was bleak: he was an orphan and spent much of the first 7 years of his life on the streets, then 5 years in an orphanage. He suffered from “major depressive disorder, reactive attachment disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and brief reactive psychosis.” Hugo was adopted in 2002 from Guatemala by 33-year-old Debra Jean Clayton and her husband Keith, a couple living in Lexington County, South Carolina. The Clayton family were raising 8 children (5 biological, 3 adopted), all whom Debra Jean homeschooled while her husband worked. The family was religious.

James Metts, a Lexington County sheriff, reported that the teenager killed Debra Jean because “he was upset about restrictions that were imposed him…for disobeying his parents.” The restrictions were language-based: Hugo was being required by his parents “to speak only English.” His act of disobedience was refusing “to go to work in the family painting business.” Keith said the family was “an army at war with Satan.”

On the day of the murder, Hugo stabbed Debra Jean multiple times with a knife, then hid the knife under his bed. Debra Jean ultimately died from bleeding to death. A memorial service was held for her at the Calvary Chapel in Lexington.

On November 14, 2003, Hugo was charged with murder, the charge later being changed to voluntary manslaughter. In July 2005, Hugo — then 16 — pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Keith was at a loss to explain his adopted son’s actions, saying, “He was a good kid when he lived here. It’s just inexplainable.”

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Lukah Probzeb Chang

March 4, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial TeamLeave a comment

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Lukah Probzeb Chang

In August 2013, police in Pendleton, Oregon, arrested 23-year-old Lukah Probzeb Chang (also known as Danny Wu) for murdering one young woman and attempting to murder another.

Lukah grew up on a North Carolina farm and his father was the pastor of a Baptist church. He was homeschooled and also attended a private Christian school his senior year from which he was expelled. In 2006, his family moved to Thailand for a year as Christian missionaries to set up a church in a refugee camp. After being expelled from private school his senior year, he joined the military. He served in the Marines at the Marine Corps Base Camp in Pendleton, California but deserted his post as of July 9, 2012. He then moved from his home in Oceanside, California, turning up in Oregon.

On August 14, 2012, Lukah stabbed a 19-year-old motel maid, Amyjane Brandhagen, to death. Almost a year later, on August 9, 2013, he attempted to beat another woman, 53-year-old Karen Lange, to death with a metal pipe. Karen was jogging on a public jogging path. Police were originally at a loss to solve the motel murder; DNA, however, linked the motel room to the pipe used in the jogging attack. Video surveillance from the jogging attack identified Lukah, then known as a homeless person who went by “Danny Wu.” Lukah decided to hide at the Pendleton Convention Center, where two food service workers discovered him in a kitchen and reported him to the police.

During his trial, Lukah never explained why he murdered the first woman and attempted to murder the second woman. According to police, he “did not appear to suffer from mental illness, alcohol or drug problems,” though he “regularly warned people to stay away from him.”

Lukah pleaded guilty to both murder and attempted murder and was sentenced to prison for 35 years to life. He will be 58 before he can ask the Oregon Parole Board for reassessment.

View the case index here.