Murder for Christmas: AZ Schizophrenic Man Bludgeoned Youngsters

TWO LITTLE BOYS did not get what they wanted for Christmas.  They never got the chance to open their gifts or play with new toys Christmas morning.  They were bludgeoned beyond recovery Tuesday afternoon, reportedly by a schizophrenic neighbor who followed them to a small community park in Phoenix and crushed their skulls by repeated, forceful blows with a baseball bat.  Seven-year-old Jesse and his 10-year-old cousin, Edwin, died the day after Christmas from massive head injuries.  Joe Sauceda Gallegos, age 36, was arrested and charged initially with child abuse and dangerous crimes against children.  His charges were upgraded to first degree murder after the Edwin died Friday.  Another first degree murder charge is planned against Gallegos because little Jesse also died, shortly after his cousin.

Law officers had no trouble apprehending Gallegos within hours of the brutal attack.  All police had to do was look for the man who reportedly told authorities six months ago that he killed his own sons and had their bodies in his attic.  But police never found any such victims at the house.  Gallegos’ sons are the same ages of the little boys he murdered.  They were not dead in their father’s attic, but safe with their mother in Colorado.  This time when police went to Gallegos’ home, they found a baseball bat and blood-soaked clothes.  This writer has not verified that such a report was made to police as reported by Gallegos' uncle, but the article is written with the assumption that such a report was made as stated in the Associated Press news report at the link below. 

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Both Boys Beaten Severely in Phoenix Park Die

 December 26, 2008

(AP) PHOENIX – "It was just a brutal, vicious attack that didn't need to happen," [Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy] Thompson said.  Police don't know a motive. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081226/ap_on_re_us/children_beaten

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Six months ago, Gallegos reportedly pled for help by telling authorities he had murdered his two young sons.  But Gallegos’ psychosis was not answered with hospitalization and treatment.  This writer cannot say whether Gallegos was allowed to continue living unrestrained among his neighbors while suffering a mental health crisis because he refused treatment or if Gallegos' neglect was due to lack of funds for mental health care in Arizona.  What can be an acceptable explanation to the children’s family for leaving Gallegos in an obvious psychotic state, free to act on his murderous hallucinations?  What excuse is there for Gallegos’ uncle, Joe Sauceda, who tried to explain to police after the murders that his nephew is schizophrenic and needed help? 

Now that Gallegos really has murdered two little boys as he probably envisioned repeatedly for six months or more while watching children play, his approval was not sought by authorities before taking him into custody, and no expense will be spared to imprison Gallegos for the rest of his life.  Gallegos finally met the mark for intervention when he proved to be a danger by bludgeoning his young neighbors to death before Christmas Eve.  Gallegos’ consent for containment and treatment is no longer required.  America’s prison budget is ample, unlike mental health care funding to prevent such tragedies.

Gallegos will get psychiatric examinations now that little Jesse and Edwin have died, and he will be treated for schizophrenia in prison.  Gallegos will not be able to post his $1 million bail, so he will remain imprisoned for many months at taxpayers’ expense while awaiting trial.  A lawyer will be appointed to represent Gallegos, also at taxpayers’ expense.  A superior court judge will spend hours reviewing Gallegos’ psychiatric evaluations, reading motions, and listening to oral arguments by a well-paid state prosecutor and Gallegos’ attorney.  Then the judge will issue a ruling on whether the mentally ill man is competent to stand trial for murdering his young neighbors.   A stenographer will take notes at the hearings while at least one law officer stands guard.  After all of this, Gallegos will likely be appointed a cell alongside 1.25 million other Americans who are criminalized and imprisoned for mental illness.

If Gallegos recovers his mental faculties well enough to live among the regular inmate population, Arizona taxpayers will be billed around $50,000 per year for the rest of Gallegos' life.  On the other hand, if Gallegos remains in a state of mental crisis, the cost of his incarceration for taxpayers will triple. Because Gallegos committed such a heinous crime - child murders - he will likely be subject to hostility and abuse by other inmates and become an object of hated for prison guards.  It is doubtful that Gallegos will find his prison environment conducive to healing, so it is unrealistic to expect him to recover sufficiently to join the general inmate population. 

No concessions should be anticipated for Gallegos’ mental illness in prison.  In fact, mentally ill prisoners are ordinarily incarcerated under crueler circumstances than other inmates.  Rather than psychiatric treatment, many acute mental patients in prisons across America are gassed, Tasered, or placed in often deadly restraint chairs for control.  Others are regularly condemned to solitary confinement and some spend many months naked in cells the size of small closets where they live in their own filth, perhaps relieved for one hour of exercise daily, or perhaps not. Torture is not known for improving one's mental health.  Therefore, Arizona taxpayers probably will never realize the savings that could result if Gallegos improves.  That being the case, taxpayers will pay approximately $150,000 per year for warehousing Gallegos for the remaining 41.8 years of his life expectancy (about $6,270,000.00).  

If Gallegos ever recovers sufficiently to realize the monstrous act he was allowed to commit while in the grips of a schizophrenic crisis, he will undoubtedly regret being left untreated and free to kill two beautiful children during Christmas week, 2008.

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Mary Neal
Website:  http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Author's Page:  http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/profile.html?pid=513396753

Articles:  http://www.care2.com/news/member/513396753?sort=submitted

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
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And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.  
~ Matthew 25:37-40