http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/20/text.suicide.ap/index.html[/url]
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A lovesick teenage girl drove into an oncoming car in a suicide attempt that she counted down "8, 7, 6..." in a text message to the female classmate who spurned her, authorities said. The teenager survived but a woman in the other car -- a mother of three -- died.
Louise Egan Brunstad, 16, was charged Thursday with felony murder. Prosecutors said they intend to try her as an adult. If convicted, she faces an automatic life sentence.
"She was actually counting down her imminent threat: 'Nine, eight, seven, six ... I'm going to do it,"' said Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard.
Authorities said Brunstad rammed her family's Mercedes-Benz head-on into a smaller Daewoo driven by 30-year-old Nancy Salado-Mayo, who was killed. Salado-Mayo's middle child, Lesly, 6, was in a child safety seat and was treated for fractured ribs and other injuries.
Brunstad, who was treated for an ankle injury, had told friends she planned to kill herself after another female student at Holy Innocents Episcopal School refused to have sex with her, Howard said.
Witnesses told police the girl never slowed as she crossed over a turning lane and into oncoming traffic on busy Roswell Road in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood on October 4.
"She was traveling at a high rate of speed," Howard said. "This is an intentional action."
The girl's attorney, Drew Findling, declined to discuss the allegations but expressed the family's sadness over the accident.
"This young lady and her parents are devastated by this horrible accident and by the death of Mrs. Salado-Mayo and the injuries of her daughter," Findling said. "They are praying for the quick and healthy recovery of her daughter and for the well-being of her husband and other children."
After a memorial service in Atlanta, Salado-Mayo's body was returned to her native Mexico for burial. Her husband, Mario Bibiano, a steel worker, was unable to attend the funeral because he remained by his daughter's bedside at an Atlanta hospital.
Brunstad was on crutches in court Thursday for a brief hearing on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault. Howard said she is being held at a mental health facility, and is wearing an electronic monitor around her ankle to prevent her from running away.
:cry: I feel SOOO sorry for the husband. He missed her funeral because he was at his little girl's hospital bed.
THAT is a tough choice, but IMO, he did the right thing. His daughter needed him more than his wife. :cry:
that mans going to be hurting for a looooooooong time, :cry:, i honestly dont know what i would do, id more than likely be at my childsbedside as well :cry:
My prayers go out to him and his family. :cry:
A disgustingly selfish act is made even worse when you take someone else with you. Fortunately, she survived, so she will get to face the consequences of her actions instead of getting the easy way out.
I feel sooo sorry for the Salado-Mayo family.
My prayers to the survivors.
Wipe the gene pool clean of that little f%$king whore, and her family.
She'll never get it.
Ever.
If I was a juror the death penalty would be the only option I would accept.
But that would give her what she wants. Make her live, locked up, for the rest of her natural life. Show her what it means for life to truly suck.
Quote from: Egaeus on October 20, 2006, 08:03:59 PM
But that would give her what she wants. Make her live, locked up, for the rest of her natural life. Show her what it means for life to truly suck.
+1
I don't care what she wants or anything.
Her dangerously stupid ass needs to be removed from existence.
Not that I was almost killed by a retarded driver today and would be touchy about fuckheads driving cars. (6 inches to the right and my family would be reading my will right now.)
BTW driving is not a right like most people think, it's a f%$king responsiblity. People of that caliber will never understand that and should never have more horsepower than a weed-eater.
I don't care what she does or doesn't want. Remove her from doing more damage.
I don't think she's much danger to the gene pool. She wanted to kill herself because another girl wouldn't have sex with her.
you know you can be drowned and revived, in that order (hard to do it the other way around without permanent results), almost without limit?
just remove her from the earth. She's obviously careless, stupid and dangerous to those around her.
I like the idea of two or three drownings per day for a while.
C'mon guys, she clearly did a really stupid thing and caused a world of hurt to someone else, anyone who knows anything about suicides/suicide attempts knows that she has to have some type of mental problem. Plus at 16 she doesn't have the impulse control and ability to fully comprehend and think through her stupid split second decisions. She probably didn't even think about the fact that she could kill someone else. She's gotta live with that for the rest of her life now. The media likes to play into these stupid little things that the whole reason behind this is that a girl wouldn't sleep with her. Clearly that isnt it. How about going to a religious school and realizing you're ghey? There's more to it but its easier to be angry at her and not care the real reasons behind why she did such a stupid thing. Was it a trigger for something else deeper? Probably. Do i feel badly for the famly? Hell yes, it was a tragedy and an awful thing to have happen, but I think we also need to consider the fact that this was a troubled youth who made a bad decision in what she probably intended to be a call for help. Should she get help and be punished? Yes, but don't be so quick to judge....ok let the flamming begin...
I don't think age is an issue. Chicks mature faster than dudes, so I hear, and at 16 I was full aware of what I could do that would endanger another person.
yeah but many of the ghey girls i've met haven't matured quickly....it has to do with brain chemistry not everyone is the same I think its clear here she wasn't very mature
Quote from: Onlypastrana199 on October 20, 2006, 08:55:49 PM
...but I think we also need to consider the fact that this was a troubled youth who made a bad decision in what she probably intended to be a call for help. Should she get help and be punished? Yes, but don't be so quick to judge....ok let the flamming begin...
I dont want to take this out of context but I just wanted to address my response to this. I dont think her sexual orientation has anything to do with it. She obviously needs help. Unfortunately she also chose to commit a crime, a crime that not only could have potentially injured herself but she chose, very premeditated, to use another vehicle as a target. She should be incarcerated for her life without parole. Her conscience will be her prison sentence but that doesnt usurp her dept to society now (prison time).
I feel bad for both families. This is such a tragic thing. I can't even imagine such a thing happening to my wife without tears welling up...
I've read studies that linked sexual orientation with certain behaviors in both young men and women...not as a cause but as an effect. Not that it really matters either wya.
I also feel bad for both families. The girl is mentaly ill. She needs help for her mental illness, and she needs to pay for her crime. Should she die? I don't think so. I don't think it's right to kill mentaly ill people. Regardless of thier crime. Premeditated cold blooded murder is cause for death. Not a sick teenager who made a huge mistake due to mental illness. Then again, maybe she wants to go to jail. She might get what she wants in there. :icon_lol:
depending on the husband, (of the dead wife), there will prolly be a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge lawsuit as well so basically, one i dont think the girl will be executed, and 2 shell have to live with what she did, and 3 so will her family, both emotionally and more than likely financially as well
As a husband and a father, I have no sympathy for this person. When she decided to kill herself she could have jumped off an overpass, shot herself or killed herself alot of different ways that would not have killed an innocent mother of 3 and wife. Before I was 16 I knew what was right and wrong, being g ay is no excuse to murder someone.
I don't even think she should get a life sentence without parole, this was intentional murder and she should be executed (sp?).
Maybe I have some anger issues I don't know but everytime I think of this and it happening to my wife and son I get really mad. That had to be a tough decision to make either to stay with your daughter or go to your wife's funeral, I have no idea how I'd handle a decision like that.
My point was, that clearly she didnt consider those things first, she just did it. I wasn't saying that she shouldn't be punished, just trying to point out how she could do such a thing. She was self absorbed and consumed by her own pain and couldn't see past that.
Quote from: Onlypastrana199 on October 21, 2006, 06:29:30 AM
My point was, that clearly she didnt consider those things first, she just did it. I wasn't saying that she shouldn't be punished, just trying to point out how she could do such a thing. She was self absorbed and consumed by her own pain and couldn't see past that.
Exactly why I promote removing her from this planet.
Quote from: CirclesCenter on October 21, 2006, 11:17:23 AM
Quote from: Onlypastrana199 on October 21, 2006, 06:29:30 AM
My point was, that clearly she didnt consider those things first, she just did it. I wasn't saying that she shouldn't be punished, just trying to point out how she could do such a thing. She was self absorbed and consumed by her own pain and couldn't see past that.
Exactly why I promote removing her from this planet.
Wasnt that Hitler's philosphy in dealing with the mentally ill??
You know, back in the days of usenet it was generally accepted that if you were the first one to reference hitler you had lost the arguement.
It's called Godwin's Law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_Law
Mentally ill and criminally insane are two different things BTW.
Quote from: CirclesCenter on October 21, 2006, 11:56:12 AM
You know, back in the days of usenet it was generally accepted that if you were the first one to reference hitler you had lost the arguement.
It's called Godwin's Law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_Law
1. That law is just an excuse when you want to ignore a valid point.
2. The 16 year old fits the description of mentally ill. Had she purposely run her car into the other woman's car with the intent of trying to kill the occupant of the car whether she knew them or not, then she would be criminally insane. The 16 year old was trying to kill herself not anyone else.
Did she screw up big time?? Yes!! Do I think that she should be punished for her negligance?? Yes!! But killing mentally ill people?? No. We all make mistakes and some of us make bigger mistakes than other. What's that saying about casting the first stone???
Ehh.. I have no sympathy for the girl. When I was younger, I had a few morbid thoughts, and how I'd kill myself was one of them. I wanted to do it in my car too. But I was gonna run my car into a bridge embankment, that way I'd be the only one hurt. I say life sentence without parole, none of this "serve 10 years, then be let out for good behavior" bullshit. I hate that shaZam!. If you get a sentence, you should serve it. I'm also all for the 2 drownings/revivals a day for the first week. Just my $.02
I don't think pre-meditated murder is the appropriate charge here because, as CirclesCenter mentioned, her intention was not to kill anyone but herself. Manslaughter 1 seems more appropriate, at least as far as criminal charges go. I hope that the victim's family is taken care of for life on the civil side.
It'll probably be second degree murder. If she's lucky, she'll get off with involuntary manslaughter, but there was enough gross negligence and public outrage that it will probably not be pled down to manslaughter.
They way our legal system works her lawyer will say she's the victim. She needs help, she was mentally ill. Then she'll end up in a nice cozy room in some mental hospital and be out in less than 3 years, claiming to be cured.
Total BS I'd rather my tax dollars were spent leathal injection or the chair rather than feeding, clothing and housing for her. Or for any person that takes another life purposfully.
And no I wouldn't have the same feeling for someone that was in a real accident and killed someone. If she really wanted to kill herself by driving into on comming traffic she would have picked a Mac truck instead of a smaller car. Oh and she got a broken ankle? I bet she was wearing her seat belt. She's probally thought I'll have an accident, no one will die and I can get the attention that I want.
Generally I'm a nice guy I think, but something I'm an a$$.