Adrianne was a spunky, popular 16-year-old from Mansfield,
Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth. On December 4, 1995, she
slipped out of her house to meet a friend. She was never seen
alive again. The next day, a farmer discovered her body along
a rural country road. She had been clubbed over the head and
shot twice with a 9-mm handgun.
Who committed this horrific murder? A serial killer? A rapist?
A seasoned criminal let out on parole too soon? No. The
suspects, David Graham and Diane Zamora, are two squeaky-clean
teens from middle class families who were high school seniors
at the time of the murder. Apparently Graham had a one-time
sexual fling with Jones after giving her a ride from a
sporting event. Then, his girlfriend found out. Zamora was so
enraged with jealousy, she decided killing Jones was the only
way to save their relationship. TOP
In a confession published in the Dallas Morning News, Graham
wrote, "I didn't have any harsh feelings for Adrianne, but no
one could stand between me and Diane." So the two plotted her
murder, timing it exactly a month after the sexual encounter.
Graham apparently called Jones and asked her out on a date.
She came willingly into his car, which he then drove to an
isolated area. Zamora, hiding in the backseat, allegedly
clubbed Jones over the head with a barbell, and Graham then
shot her in the head to make sure she was dead.
The two young lovers hid the crime for almost a year. Graham
headed off to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and
Zamora to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. But now
their college careers--and their entire futures--are on hold
as they sit in jail awaiting trial. They have been charged
with capital murder and could face life imprisonment.
Graham and Zamora are now in jail. They have been charged with
capital murder and could face life imprisonment.
How could such "nice" kids do something so incomprehensibly
terrible? This is what their parents, friends and the police
are now wondering. But as shocking as this story is, Graham
and Zamora aren't the only "good" teens committing bad crimes.
TOP
Star Athletes Turned Bank Robbers
Last year, for example, two top athletes from Southern
California, Todd Hoult and Tabetha Garibay Hoult, pleaded
guilty to bank robbery charges. He was a former wrestling
champ at Agoura High School. She was the star forward for
Pepperdine University's soccer team. The couple, recently
married in a courthouse wedding, pulled up to a Coast Federal
Bank in Westlake Village in December of 1995 in a gold
Corvette, according to police. Hoult apparently hopped
out--his face hidden by a black ski mask, hooded sweatshirt
and sunglasses--and ran inside. Brandishing a semiautomatic
pistol, he then ordered two or three bank employees on the
floor, vaulted over the counter and demanded that the two
tellers put up their hands. He stole $8,925, then ran back
into the Corvette. Tabetha sped off. He is now serving 57
months in jail; his wife is serving eight months of house
arrest for driving the getaway car.
Hoult apparently was no stranger to crime--he had already
confessed to committing a string of neighborhood burglaries in
1992, and was on probation for his crimes. But Tabetha was a
different story. During the sentencing phase of the trial, she
reportedly told the judge that her part in the crime was "out
of character."
Such misdeeds prove that "crimes know no social or economic
boundaries," says Alexandria, Virginia-based clinical
psychologist Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D., author of Before It's
Too Late: Why Some Kids Get Into Trouble and What Parents Can
Do About It . TOP
TEEN CRIME TRENDS
All kinds of youth crime are up, according to the U.S.
Department of Justice:
- After more than a decade of relative
stability, the juvenile violent crime arrest rate increased
more than 50 percent between 1988 and 1994.
- Female juvenile violent crime arrests
more than doubled during between 1985 and 1994.
- From 1985 to 1994, the percentage
increases in arrests have been greater for juveniles than
adults.
- If trends continue, juvenile arrests
for violent crime will more than double by the year 2010.
These statistics, however, include crimes
motivated by poverty, gang activity and drugs. To discover the
reasons why kids like Graham and Zamora go wrong, you have to
dig deeper.
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