http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150219/NEWS02/702199905
Brandon Adams-Smith
Published February 19, 2015 in the Rutland Herald
‘Junior gangster’ given a second chance
By ERIC FRANCIS
CORRESPONDENT
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A teenager who police say sold drugs under the street name “West Side” has reached a plea agreement with the state. Police said Brandon Adams-Smith, who is now 17, set off the chain of events that led to the June 2014 shooting of a fellow teenage drug dealer at an apartment on Summer Street in Springfield.
Adams-Smith pleaded guilty to felony counts of burglary of an occupied dwelling with an intent to assault, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of providing false information to police officers and violating his conditions of release.
In exchange for the pleas, Adams-Smith will receive a “blended sentence” designed for young offenders. That agreement is conditional upon Adams-Smith “testifying truthfully” at the trials of two older men accused of plotting and carrying out the attack on Joseph Atkinson.
Atkinson survived being shot once in the stomach,
The details of Adams-Smith’s sentence will be worked out in future juvenile court hearings, with input from the Department for Children and Families and the Department of Corrections.
“I really hope you understand the gift you are being given here,” Judge Karen Carroll said in court Tuesday as she accepted the agreement.
“I do, your honor,” Adams-Smith replied.
“You heard me read all these potential penalties? Scary stuff,” Carroll said as Adams-Smith nodded.
“What happens is that you go to the juvenile court and you are put on probation and (if) you violate probation you come back to this court, potentially, and face those sentences,” the judge said.
“Yes, your honor, I understand that,” Adams-Smith said.
State’s Attorney Michael Kainen recommended the plea agreement, saying Adams-Smith had been “essentially homeless” since the age of 12. He said the teenager “fell in with a tough crowd” in the form of two older men with reputed ties to New Jersey drug gangs that have been active in southern Vermont in recent years.
Kainen said the events of June 11 came about over a heroin dispute. One of the men shot Atkinson in the stomach and Adams-Smith hit him with a baseball bat, the prosecutor said.
After the hearing, Kainen said that he was impressed with the recent efforts of Adams-Smith, whom he described as “polite and thoughtful” in meetings with authorities.
“These other characters sort of turned him into a junior gangster; however, since then he’s been trying to fly right,” Kainen said.
RE: “I really hope you understand the gift you are being given here,”
ReplyDeleteAnd we have come to expect nothing less from Judge Karen Carroll.
Also, " the teenager 'fell in with a tough crowd' ” (State’s Attorney Michael Kainen.) Kainen is either unaware Adams-Smith is the "tough crowd" we need to be protected from, or more likely, too lazy and incompetent to prepare trial to keep this hardened criminal off the streets. Now up to some victimized parent or home owner to take out the trash.
Unfriggin believable. You have got to be joking right? So, it was all someone else fault this kid took a bat with intent to hurt others? REALLY? So, the fact that he is old enough to know better, he knows and understands right from wrong, and yet violated conditions of release, yet he is trying to "fly right". Seriously, the only answer is arm yourself, let them break into your home and blow them away and save the state some money cause this court system is a joke.
ReplyDeleteAre their ANY residents who would be interested in joining a petition to remove the judge and any residents that would commit to showing up to a protest outside the court? Cause apparently the only answer is to enlist the help of the media and other townspeople to bring awareness that these sentences are NOT WORKING.
You do realize your petition would require you to sign your ACTUAL name, right? Are you planning on showing up outside the court with a bag over your head to protect your anonymity?
DeleteNo Eugene I have no problem whatsoever showing my face or giving my name. Clearly, anyone who knows me intown can attest I have no issue with standing my ground.
Delete7:54 PM But just not on this Blog...Too Funny!
Delete7:54, you said you have no problem whatsoever giving your name, but you responded without, um, stating your name. It looks like you do have an issue with standing your ground.
DeleteI'll sign my name
DeleteYet again- this is the exact reason why Springding is in the shape it is. Because a bunch of dimwits want to argue over whether someone on a blog identifies who they are. REALLY-the person simply asked if anyone would be willing to protest or sign petitions or whatever to get rid of this liberal judge. Seriously guys grow up. A blog is a blog. Do something constructive. Yup Im anonymous but I can say I do know Tim and I helped reform your schools...HMMMM lets see who could that be!
DeleteMr. Peabody (if that's your real name), my guess is that most of the anonymous posters here would have no problem standing their ground against the likes of you or anyone else if it actually came to that. Why do the thoughts and statements of anonymous posters bother you so much anyway? Is it because you have no other grounds upon which to challenge them other than by condemning their anonymity. Weak. Really weak!
DeleteIf we are Wood Chucks then lets start chucking wood.
Delete9:49, I assure you it is my real name, and here's why anonymous posters bother me. People like you are all too quick to condemn others but don't have the strength of your own convictions to stand and be counted. You all shoot from the hip without thinking the process through.
DeleteLet's address the "petition". There are two ways Vermont judges may be removed. The first is they may be impeached by a two-thirds vote of the House of Representatives and convicted by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
The second is having a judicial conduct board investigate complaints of judicial misconduct or disability and then recommending any necessary action to the supreme court. Possible disciplinary actions include public reprimand of the judge, suspension for a part or the remainder of the judge's term of office, or retirement of the judge if physically or mentally disabled.
So what is the "petition" going to state? The fact that you think Judge Carroll is too lenient? That will merit about 10 seconds of discussion in Montpelier. Oh, and please let me know how protesting outside the court (you'll have the proper permit for that, I presume) works out for you.
Mr. Peabody, you are one of The Few. One would think that in a country that defends free speech, speakers would be proud to have their name associated with their opinion. I owe you a cup of coffee.
DeleteYou don't "fall" into tough crowds, you make the choice to "join" tough crowds.
ReplyDeleteWhen you look around and that's the only damn crowd still around when you're walking the street at q1pm with no place to sleep and your belly is hungry?? What crowd do you suppose is most easily accessible in the life of a boy who has a mother who is doing time for defending herself against an abuser (oh yes, it doesn't just happen on tv) and his father is such a joke he thinks giving him $20 every few weeks is enough to consider his hands washed of responsibility?? NOBODY WANTED TO HELP MY SON YUP MY SON!! BUT EVERYONE WANTS TO CONDEMN HIM...LOOK IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD.quite possibly you should be careful of all those stones you people are throwing
Delete1AM
DeleteVery good comments, sarah adams!
DeleteAny parent of a kid who's run into trouble can (and usually does) look back to discover critical points at which, had a different decision been made, things would have turned out quite different. I'm sure you've identified some of those.
The problem for any parent is identifying those points at the time they arrive. In the case of "high risk families"-- under-20 women who are school failures and either pregnant or mothers-- it was found decades ago that the single most effective way of helping them to develop the ability to recognize those points was home visits. The simple expedient of having a skilled health worker visit once a week to discuss what Mom was facing in terms of child health and child care resulted in healthier and smarter kids and mothers with more self-confidence.
Unfortunately, the Clinton administration's work to "end welfare as we know it" replaced the 60+ state workers who dealt with the bottom 4,000 Vermont families with just TWO people. So, instead of getting resources on a weekly basis, those families got to spend 15 seconds twice a year. The conversation generally was,
"Hi, I'm with the Dr. Dynasaur program. Do you have any questions about it?" "No." "Okay! Goodbye."
Maybe you can build off your personal experience to help today's "high-risk" women.
Here's a child (evil, perhaps, but still a child in the eyes of the law) who has basically been homeless since the age of 12, according to the article.
ReplyDeleteWhat sort of behavior would you expect from a kid who's been homeless for almost one-third of his life? Apparently nobody was able to hold his parents to any standard of responsibility, and certainly whatever tax-funded social services system was in place for him (after all, foster parents DO get a stipend to help them, but if there are not enough social workers, foster parents can founder on a difficult child) was not enough.
Contrast this kid's situation with somebody who got away with it for years-- both selling and using, and spiraling downward so badly that one night he actually got down on his knees and prayed to get out of the mess he was in. Shortly afterward, he was arrested, convicted, jailed. Since then, he has been a good citizen and a responsible worker, pays his taxes on time and has a lot of info about the drug scene that could keep Springfield kids on the straight and narrow.
So, rather than simply dump on this juvenile, why not make the system give him a chance to get it right? We know who he is, he knows he's being watched, and maybe he's smart enough to understand the options he has. If not, he'll join the gang up at the prison, most of whom struck me as not very bright.
AND-- what Carroll gave him for a sentence depends on his complete co-operation with the prosecution of the other two, so we should appreciate that she's aware of the situation.
And Springfield's resident apologist is heard from yet again.... No problem too big for solving with more government spending, pseudo psychology, and trying to send everyone on long and winding guilt trips. But we never see this guy actually write a $12,000 check to the state (the amount of his "surplus" every year) or take in homeless foster children or provide his own domicile as a half-way house for reprobates. No, he'd rather saddle the rest of us with the paying for and implementing those minor "details"!
DeleteI believe in the redemption of oneself and the perfectibility of human nature, something the Founding Fathers believed in, by the way... And may you too be living on $12,000 more than you require!
DeleteYou believe in fairy tales and once again have incorrectly portrayed history. The Founding Fathers were skeptical of the virtue of the individual and therefore devised a system that would be least reliant on it. Its check and balances would protect against the fallen condition of the human being so that the system could and would endure. They were realists who recognized the flaws in human nature and were not reluctant to confront them with common sense,direct solutions, not the politically correct salves of today that merely perpetuate the flaws and allow them to propagate at growing rates through society.
DeleteThanks for being part of the problem and unwilling to put your own money where your flapping gums are.
And yet another criminal is set free by liberator Judge Karen Carroll. Who would have guessed?
ReplyDeleteIf this kid testifies (and I assume he will) against the other to people involved with this crime, he will be a marked man and will have to watch his back the rest of his life. So he isn't getting off as easy as he thinks he is.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing is he doesn't want to go to prison after he testifies because he might not wake up for breakfast sometime.
IMO he would be better off just accepting responsibility for what he did and maybe even going to prison for it.
None of you know what my son had been through...you do not know the life he has lived or what he has dealt with..judgemental people
DeleteUNBELIEVABLE! Thanks for the gift judge! Once again!
ReplyDelete