Earlier on Friday, I commented on a tweet from Steve Keeley, showing the mugshot of a Philadelphia man,35, charged with $300k take in spree of 24 robberies and burglaries in Philadelphia & 5 Montgomery & Bucks County suburbs in just 10 month span. I said, “Love the expression on his mug shot,” because he had a ‘what the heck have I done’ look on his face.
A 15-year-old Georgia boy thought that he was a big-time hood; he wound up crying for his mother.
‘Mama!’ teen screams in court, accused of killing Columbus woman while stealing gun
by Tim Chitwood | Friday, June 9, 2023 | 9:38 AM CDT
Screams erupted in a Columbus courtroom Thursday as a 15-year-old accused of fatally shooting a woman while stealing her brother’s gun fought deputies escorting him out after his hearing.
“Mama!” Jabori Baptiste yelled as he struggled to get back into the courtroom, where a woman screamed and wailed in response. Sheriff’s deputies wrestled with Bapiste while trying to restrain him, while other officers rushed his relatives out of the Recorder’s Court building on 10th Street.
Outside, the ruckus continued as Baptiste’s family saw the suspect was still fighting with deputies trying to get him into a patrol car. The shouting resumed, and it took several minutes for officers to get the teen securely into the cruiser. The car raced away toward the Aaron Cohn Regional Youth Detention Center, where Baptiste is being held.
Though he is being charged as an adult with felony murder and robbery, Recorder’s Court Judge David Ranieri allowed no news media to photograph or record the suspect in court because he is a juvenile.
Young Mr Baptiste was allegedly among a large group of similarly aged kids, and tried to steal a gun owned by Eugene Bell, out by the fuel pumps at a convenience store. As Mr Bell resisted, his sister, Natalie Bell intervened, the gun discharged, and Miss Bell was struck and killed. Young Mr Baptiste fled, with the weapon.
Like almost every other convenience store these days, the Mystic Mart at 645 Brown Avenue had surveillance cameras, which caught the whole incident on tape, and Mr Baptiste’s face was clearly recorded. The money line was near the end of the story:
Muscogee County School District Police, along with Baptiste’s probation officer, identified the youth from those images, he said.
So, he was 15-years-old, and already had a probation officer? Sounds like Big Time had already been busted and convicted before.
There is an old episode of NCIS, where Mark Harmon, as Leroy Jethro Gibbs is interrogating some young college students, and leans over one, saying, “Believe me, son, you will not do well in prison.” I’m guessing that a 15-year-old punk kid who cries for his mother will not do well behind bars.