Brooklyn man kills elderly woman in elevator over $2,000.

[LSN80]

By now, I'm sure most of you have heard the story of the man who set fire to a Brooklyn woman in her apartment building's elevator, killing her. 47 year old Jerome Isaac told police he killed 73 year old Delores Gillespie because she owed him $2,000 for repairs he did for her in her home.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-19/...olotov-cocktail-elevator-browne?_s=PM:JUSTICE

The story of how the incident took place is as premeditated as it gets. Isaac went to Gillespie's house, and not finding her there, waited two hours for her to return. When she did return, he sprayed her in the face with gasoline. When she attempted to flee, he followed her back into the elevator, spraying her further. NYPD Deputy Commissioner said the following regarding the incident:

"Using one of those long lighters that you would use for a grill, he lit a Molotov cocktail and used the burning leg on top of that to ignite her body. The suspect stepped out of the elevator, threw the Molotov cocktail inside, then returned again to spray more liquid on the woman as she burned. This is as bad as it gets,"

Upon returning to his apartment, Isaac inexplicably set fire to his own door, and then hid on the roof of his apartment complex for several hours before turning himself in for "starting a fire". The incident was caught on the security cameras in the elevator, and Isaac made a full confession after the tapes were presented to him. He is currently being held in jail with no bail on charges of murder and arson, and is scheduled to appear in court again today.

This is truly one of the worst news stories I've read in a long time, and I truly feel anger upon reading it. For the life of me, I cannot understand how a human being could justify the murder and torture of another person, especially over something as trivial as $2,000. His lawyer is requesting protective custody for the man due to the "nature of the offense". I'm not a proponent of revenge killings, or even the death penalty in most incidents, but I can't help but feel that this man doesn't deserve protection .

My fear is this: Because of the inexplicable nature of the crime, the man will plead insanity and do so successfully. There truly is no rational explanation for his actions here. I've heard it said that money, jealousy, and revenge are the three primary reasons for premeditated murder, but this comes across as a hate crime more then anything else. Not only did the man set her on fire, but he re-opened the elevator in order to spray her with more gasoline as she was already burning to death. Where is the sanity in that? Sure, there's the money issue, but $2,000? I don't know what means he went to in the past while attempting to get the money, but one thing's for sure. You can't collect off a dead person.

Stories such as this are so horrific that they leave you stunned and asking why. There is nothing Mr. Isaac could possibly say to explain this hatful, deadly incident. What makes this even worse is the fact that Ms. Gillespie had a reputation for trying to help people who were down on their luck. According to friends and relatives, she gave food and shelter to the homeless and welcomed strangers into her apartment, sometimes hiring them for small tasks and chores. That was how she came to know Mr. Isaac, they said.

Obviously, there is so much here that doesn't add up, but in the end, a man tortured and burned to death a woman who was trying to help him. The possibility of this man being found not guilty due to insanity(although I'm sure he has deep mental health issues) just disgusts me.

In the interest of looking ahead, let's presume the man is found guilty of first-degree murder. If you were handing down sentencing, what would you decide?

Should this man be afforded protective custody due to the "nature of the offense?

If you were on the jury here, would you be able to consider insanity as a defense, knowing the possibility could arise where Mr. Isaac could see the streets again?

The questions are here to provide a springboard for discussion, but feel free to give your thoughts on and discuss this story as you see fit.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

To be honest, I'm not very comfortable discussing this on a wrestling forum, but see it from a distant point of view, it seems like he acted out of rage after waiting for her for two hours.


A painful way to go.

 

[Davi323]

In the interest of looking ahead, let's presume the man is found guilty of first-degree murder. If you were handing down sentencing, what would you decide?

Since it happened in New York, a non-death penalty state, I would go with life sentence, absolutely zero possibility of parole. It's clear that the actions were premeditated, and designed specifically to kill her. No claims that it was the heat of the moment, no claims that he only meant to hurt her, but didn't mean to kill her. He did mean to kill her, and he developed a specific plan in order to do it. It was brutal, it was cold blooded, and maximized her suffering first.

Should this man be afforded protective custody due to the "nature of the offense?

No. He is already in jail as he waits, I don't see a need to do anything beyond that.

If you were on the jury here, would you be able to consider insanity as a defense, knowing the possibility could arise where Mr. Isaac could see the streets again?

No, and for the same reasons that I would give the maximum possible sentence. He was demonstrating that he was thinking rationally (in his own mind) by developing the plan, waiting patiently for her to return, and carrying it out. The decision to burn his own apartment was not inexplicable. Isn't the rationale for doing that obvious? He was hoping that if the entire apartment building caught on fire, that her death in the elevator would have been pinned on that, that while he would have committed arson, she was only "accidentally" killed in the elevator. He was trying to minimize the trouble he could get into by trying to make her murder look like something else. That tells me that he had a clear mind, that he understood what he did was wrong, (important in determining sanity) and was trying to disguise it. I wouldn't buy the insanity plea for one second. Guy was in total control of his mental faculties.

 

[Mustang Sally]

As much as we'd like him to fry, he very likely is insane and did this crime in a fit of rage. As distasteful as it sounds, his lawyer will be saying to the jury:

"By doing what he did, the man cancelled any chance he had of collecting his money. Does that sound like the act of a sane person to you?"

Yes, dead people make poor payers; it's the reason why "loan collectors" don't kill their "clients." That this guy did probably will get him sent to an insane asylum rather than spending life in prison. Above all, our wonderful legal system will want to make sure this guy's rights are protected. Ugh.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

If we can change laws, I say death penalty. I'm usually against that, because so many people are found innocent and a lot of times that sort of thing could have been prevented and maybe I'm just too nice of a guy. However, we spend entirely too much on prisoners. I guess if we can change laws while we're at it; maybe I don't give them anything to workout with, no TV, no newspapers, no luxuries. Just a daily morning reading over the speakers that tells them about the days news and a track to run on. Getting off topic though.

 

[Dagger Dias]

This is one of the most ruthless killings I have ever heard of. How he could possibly do this, over owed money, is beyond me. First of all, how is he going to collect the money she owed him if she's dead? Secondly, he could have just sued her or something. Killing in such a cruel way is hardly justified. That's no way to treat another human being. He sprayed flammable material all over her and ignited her. He should be locked away for life, and an insanity plea would only be all the more reason to keep him away from others for their own safety. Perhaps protected custody, but someone like this has no business being free ever again due to the likelihood of him acting this way again.