GUILTY CT - Emmaline Turner, 10, & Josiah Swain, 15mos, slain, New London, 20 April 2004

Casshew

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NEW LONDON, Connecticut (AP) -- Two children were stabbed to death Tuesday morning in an apartment and three other people were injured, police said.

The two, 15-month-old Josiah Swain and his 10-year-old aunt, Emmaline Turner, were killed at about 1 a.m. at the Thames River public housing complex, Deputy Police Chief William Gavitt said.

The suspect, Robert Swain III, 23, was being treated for what appeared to be two self-inflicted superficial stab wounds to the chest, authorities said. Swain, the boy's father, was due to be arraigned on two counts of capital felony, which carry a possible death sentence, Gavitt said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/04/20/stabbing.attack.ap/index.html
 
During the dispute, police said, Turner fled to Whitehead's apartment and Swain stormed in and stabbed both women.

Swain then holed himself up in Turner's apartment, police said. After negotiations failed, police stormed the apartment and found the two dead children. Swain was arrested after a struggle in which three officers were injured, including one who may have a broken arm, Gavitt said.

The dead girl had been visiting her older sister while on school break, authorities said.

It seems like I see this same scenario in many of these stories that end in such horrific tragedy. I cannot comprehend it. Here is a man so frightening and obviously violent that this woman feels the need to get away from him. So how in all that's holy can she leave two helpless little children WITH this lunatic and run and save herself? I would die covering those children with my own body if I had to. She was their only defense, even if she wasn't much of a match for him, and she abandoned them. That's like dragging your kids into a lion's cage because you wandered into it by mistake and you need something to distract the big cats so you can make your escape.

Do others feel this way? If an armed intruder broke into your house and your kids were asleep down the hall, would you run out of the house if you saw an opportunity? I wouldn't leave my kids alone with an intruder if he pointed a gun at me and told me to. I couldn't. He'd have to kill me. If my house was in flames and I saw a way out I wouldn't leave them behind. And I KNOW that is completely opposed to what you are told to do. I'd rather burn with them then keep living if they died.
 
From June 2007:

http://articles.courant.com/2007-06-23/news/0706230737_1_jennifer-turner-joseph-turner-stabbed

"I'm not supposed to show emotion, I am supposed to be just and fair and set aside any feeling," Superior Court Judge Susan B. Handy said Friday before sentencing the children's killer, Robert Swain III, to life in prison without the possibility of release. "In this kind of case, that is simply not possible"...

With seemingly no provocation, Swain's rampage began when he stabbed his estranged girlfriend, Jennifer Turner, and her neighbor, Rita Whitehead, who came to Turner's aid. Swain then barricaded himself in Turner's apartment, holding hostage Turner's 10-year-old sister, Emmaline Turner, and his and Turner's 15-month-old son, Josiah Swain. When police finally gained entry to the seventh-floor apartment, the children had been stabbed to death...

Swain, 27, pleaded guilty last month to three counts of capital felony, two counts of murder, first-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault.
 

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