I can see we have many different opinions on the root cause of this. In my opinion if these kids were still under the influence of the parents then this rests almost entirely on the parents or the adults they were staying with at the time. For the most part children follow what they have been taught in the early part of their lives or what they have seen the adults in their lives do. Are they responsible for their decisions ? Sure they are, but if they had been taught correctly and saw good examples to go by it would have never gotten to this level. I know your suppose to be an adult at 18 but some do not reach that level of maturity for many years after. All minors make bad decisions but not at this level. In my opinion this case shows a complete failure or lack of parenting in the past of these kids, as for the adult involved in this, he’s had plenty of time to change his ways and needs to be punished to the allowed maximum.—-

—- these kids still should be tried and punished but let’s not let the parents fade into the back ground. They have got to realize they have failed badly in the past raising of these kids. If these kids were a lot older then it would have been almost completely their own faults and would have had enough time to learn things other than what they were taught as a child. Now they are going to learn a very hard lesson, something they should have been taught years ago, how to resolve things without deadly force when possible.

We know without a shadow of doubt that a 60 year old man is dead and four jerks are sitting in jail.  In most courts whether or not the murder was an isolated incident or not isn’t a consideration.  Murder is murder.

I have a few years to go before I reach 60, but if a pack of teens jump me and beat me to death, I would like to be on the record that I want the survivors of that attack to FRY!

itsjustme: “another word on the street is they are bragging about.“
I am confused. Who is bragging and what are they bragging about? Do you have news to share? I’d love to hear more.

To rmseek1234: I do not presume to place these people in any specific form of employment; plush office or otherwise. And I certainly did not blame family upbringing. Please reread my post.
You are correct: many people who are born into a hard life have risen above. I’ve met many people who did not have a lot of money, who were raised in very poor conditions; those who have faltered and those who have risen above. Some of each of these groups have fantastic parents, others have pitiful excuses for parents.
This situation is not, in my opinion, a reflection of the parents. There comes a time in everyone’s life when they must be responsible for their own actions. Would you agree with that? I do not buy into the excuse that if your life is not perfect, then it’s your parent’s fault. But I will say I believe it is an overused sad excuse that too many people use to avoid responsibility.

Reply to BamaBob’s comment: My reference to it -the killing- probably being an isolated event was evident in my post. Note there is no mention of any prior illegal activities for any of them. Odds are if this were not an isolated event, they’d already be in prison. I do not know if these people “beat down” a friend earlier and took his vehicle at all. I would like to hear the truth before I condemn someone I don’t know.
Too bad this forum seems full of santimonious people who would rather “hang ‘em high” than learn the truth. The bottom line is this: the news ONLY reports what they can make most sensational. I know there are ALWAYS at least TWO sides to a story.
As for them “learning the error of their ways,“ I couldn’t say what their mentality is before, during, or after this unfortunate event unless I knew them. Neither can you, unless you know them personally and have an insight the rest of us do not share.
Again, I’ll wait for the trial to learn the truth.

i told you, “watch when it goes to trial”. what about that self defense? what about david webster being beat as well? yeah they all acted like animals, like lions waitng in the bush on the right time to pounce. scratch that more like hyenias…........ i hope bubbas telling them all about how it goes down in jail. another word on the street is they are bragging about.

I really feel for these kids. Most of this rests on the adults involved in raising these kids or the lack of proper raising of them, but they made the decisions at the time that resulted in a death and that’s something you can’t take back. they have to be punished and harshly, maybe not as harshly as I would punish the male adult involved. All of this is presupposing they will be found guilty after a trial.

I am supposing that your work with “troubled children” involves seeing them in a nice plush office somewhere. While that is all fine and good, and a valuable service, you cannot possibly know people until you have a sense of community. I don’t know these people from Adam and Eve, but I can tell you one thing, the area that it occurred and the viciousness of the attack tells me a lot. I’m in no means saying that all bad people are from rural areas,or from the hood. But look at all the data, and don’t just blame it on an isolated incident, or “family upbringing.“ Many people in the ghetto rise above their circumstances.

What was the isolated event?  The killing?  Didn’t these people act like a pack of wolves earlier the same day and beat down a “friend” and take his vehicle?

You are trying to make these people out as rational thinker that will easily learn the error of their ways.  That’s not the case.  They are probably a bunch of dope heads that never think until it is too late.  They clearly shut out all reasonable thinking and deliberately beat the man to death even though they already had him down on the ground.  They acted like animals without the ability to stop and think about their actions.