A Michigan 37-year-old father has been arrested for executing his own 15-year-old son for molesting his three-year-old half sister. Jamar Pinkney, Sr., was arraigned today for first degree murder for allegedly shooting his own son, Jamar Pinkney, Jr., in the head after the son confessed to improper sexual contact with his sister.
Jamar, Sr., allegedly first pistol whipped his son in the living room of the home where Jamar, Jr., lived with his mother, Lazette Cherry, in Highland Park, Michigan. Then Jamar, Sr., forced his son to strip naked, after which Sr. marched his son outside forcing him to a nearby vacant lot over the protests of Cherry.
Jamar, Jr., apparently painfully aware of what his father was about to do, fell to his knees and cried out, begging for his life, "No, daddy, no!" At that point Jamar, Sr., pulled the trigger on his pistol, placing a bullet, execution style, into the head of his own son.
Lazette Cherry, the boy's mother, told the Detroit Free Press that her son confessed he had improper sexual contact with the three-year-old girl. "I called and told his father. This isn't something you sweep under the rug," she said.
“I hope he rots in jail,” Cherry said of her ex. “He did not deserve that,” she said speaking of her son. “There wasn’t nothing that my son wouldn’t do for his father. He loved his father so much."
"There's no justification for what he did, you know, downright shoot your child," she said. "He didn't rape her or anything. So why did you have to come and take matters into your hands? We said we were going to get him help."
Corbett O'Meara, Pinkney, Sr.'s, lawyer, called the event a "devastating tragedy."
"My client is in shock and in mourning, but is hopeful that his family will be able to come out of this in as whole a state as possible," O'Meara said.
O'Meara said Pinkney Sr. turned himself into authorities and had no previous criminal history. He also said Pinkney had worked "for years" as a letter carrier for the United States Post Office.
Authorities filed a first-degree murder charge Wednesday against Pinkney, Sr., in the Monday shooting death of Jamar Pinkney Jr.
O'Meara said prosecutors should consider evidence of the father's state of mind because of the sex abuse report.
"If something were to happen that would cause a reasonable person to lose control of himself, that is something the prosecution would have to take into account," O'Meara told reporters outside Highland Park District Court.
Judge Brigette Officer entered a not guilty plea for Pinkney, who is also charged with assault. The judge ordered Pinkney jailed without bond until a preliminary examination on December 1st.
After the arraignment, Police Chief Ted Caldwell said, "This is something that's hard to deal with for all the parties concerned, including the police. Highland Park is a small city. These are people who have been members of the community for years."
