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A Hideous Crime, A Small Mercy

Three years ago, 16-year-old Trevor Reese jumped out of the woods, knife in hand, seized 8-year-old Jackson Attuso, who was riding by on his bicycle, and slaughtered him. After stabbing the boy multiple times, he slit the child’s throat — this, in front of the boy’s mother, father, and twin brother. This happened inside a […]

Three years ago, 16-year-old Trevor Reese jumped out of the woods, knife in hand, seized 8-year-old Jackson Attuso, who was riding by on his bicycle, and slaughtered him. After stabbing the boy multiple times, he slit the child’s throat — this, in front of the boy’s mother, father, and twin brother. This happened inside a luxury housing development in the countryside outside of St. Francisville. Reese was a straight-A student. It is not known why he did it. He has been in jail since the killing.

The murder of Jackson Attuso, who was born in Russia and adopted by American parents, devastated this community. Police officers and others close to the case were left badly shaken. Still are. The story was like something out of Grimm’s: a child goes into the woods, and a monster hiding in the bushes kills him.

How did the Reese boy become that monster? We will likely never know. His trial was supposed to commence on Monday. Just now, there was a hearing in the courthouse, in which Reese changed his plea from not guilty of first-degree murder to guilty of second-degree murder. Sentencing will take place later, pending court-mandated legislative action to change the sentencing mandate. The point is, this community has been spared having to relive the savage murder of this poor child.

I was in the courtroom and listened to Reese make his plea. He’s a tall, handsome young man. He shuffled into the courtroom in striped prison garb, his hands cuffed, his legs shackled, his life protected by a bulletproof vest. The judge questioned him at length about whether or not he understood what he was giving up by changing his plea.

“Yes sir,” he answered, quietly and pitifully.

He deserves life in prison, at least. I don’t think that’s a controversial view at all. I don’t know to what extent Reese was criminally insane when he killed that child, but he certainly should never see another day of freedom. He took a life. He ruined many lives. Still, even knowing what Reese did, it was a terrible thing to watch this today, knowing that his mother and father raised him from a baby, and loved him like I love my sons. And now they have to live with the fact that their precious son killed another mother and father’s precious son — an evil act that’s reverberating throughout many lives, and will for years and years — and will spend the rest of his life in jail.

It was just such a damn waste, is all.

Thank God for the mercy of not having to go through this trial.

UPDATE: The Baton Rouge Advocate gives more details. Plus, there’s a picture of Reese outside the courthouse. You never in a million years would look at this kid and see a murderer.

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