This is a true crime list about 10 children who committed murders.
DISCLAIMER AND WARNING: Some of the contents are graphic and very disturbing, especially because many of the victims were children themselves. Reader discretion is advised.
11/24/20...
Despite being the youngest American citizen ever sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole, Lionel Alexander Tate has had many chances to change his fate but chose to live a life full of "mistakes" instead.
On July 28, 1999, Florida Highway Patrol trooper Kathleen Grosset-Tate was babysitting 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick at her home in Miramar. She left her alone playing with her son Lionel, aged 12, who had a reputation as a schoolyard bully.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The boy decided to demonstrate with the little girl some pro-wrestling techniques that he enjoyed seeing on the "WWF Smackdown" tv show. He punched, threw and kicked her to death.
Lionel, who weighed 170 pounds at the time, stomped on her so forcefully that her liver was lacerated and part of it broke loose and was floating free inside her body. Also, part of her brain flattened inside her head, her skull was fractured and her ribs were cracked. These injuries were later described as "similar to those she would have sustained by falling from a three-story building".
He then just went to his mother saying that Tiffany was not breathing.
When police came to arrest him, Lionel claimed to have accidentally thrown her into the banister of the stairs instead of onto the couch. Upon further pressure from police, he told the whole story.
Kathleen fiercely defended his son claiming that Tiffany's death was just a tragic accident, both she and the defense attorney Jim Lewis were certain of Lionel's acquittal, to the extent that they even rejected a plea bargain agreement offered by prosecution that would have had the boy serving only three years of jail time in a juvenile center, one year of house arrest plus ten years of probation on a second-degree charge.
So, Lionel was put on trial as an adult. His case went before Judge Joel T. Lazarus of Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Jim Lewis's defense was based upon the boy's love of professional wrestling, blaming the acts of extreme violence depicted by the World Wrestling Federation for Tiffany's death. In essence, Lionel should have been pitied and not punished.
But there was plenty of evidence suggesting his guilt. As prosecutor Ken Padowitz argued, Lionel knew that his actions were wrong, which, as per the so-called "felony murder rule", was enough to have him convicted for first-degree murder. "He didn't say 'I'm going to kill Tiffany Eunick'", he said. "All that is required is that he intended to act, not that he intended the result".
In January 2001, after three hours of deliberation, the jury returned in courtroom with a guilty verdict.
Judge Lazarus, believing that Lionel's guilt was "clear, obvious and indisputable" handed down Florida's mandatory sentence for defendants convicted of first-degree murder: life in prison without parole. He said: "The acts of Lionel Tate were not the playful acts of a child [...] The acts of Lionel Tate were cold, callous and indescribably cruel".
The sentence was controversial due to both Lionel's and Tiffany's young age, bringing broad criticism on the treatment of juvenile offenders in the justice system of the State of Florida, applying the felony murder rule without having to prove that Lionel intended any harm.
In January 2004, a state appeals court overturned Lionel's conviction on the basis that his mental competency had not been evaluated before trial. This led the young man, 17-years-old at the time, to plea guilty of second-degree murder in exchange for one year's house arrest followed by ten years' probation, the same agreement his mother had originally turned down.
Lionel was released, only to be apprehended and held in prison eight months later for violating the terms of his house arrest. He was found by police a few blocks away from his house in the middle of the night carrying an eight-inch knife.
When released again, he was allowed to return to Kathleen Grossett-Tate's home.
On May 23, 2005, Lionel was charged with armed burglary with battery, armed robbery and violation of probation for his involvement in the assault of a Domino's Pizza deliveryman by the name of Walter Ernest Gallardo. He admitted his guilt but refused to answer questions about where he got and later disposed of the gun used to threaten Gallardo, which was never recovered.
He was finally sentenced to 30 years in prison on May 18, 2006.
Lionel Tate is currently being held at Charlotte Correctional Institution in Punta Gorda, Florida, and is scheduled to be released on May 14, 2030.
About Lionel's case, for which he was the prosecutor, Ken Padowitz recently stated that it "did have an impact on [American] legislation", helping in providing "alternatives that are appropriate age-based punishments and rehabilitation".
