The idea of a child committing a violent crime is deeply disturbing, yet history is filled with cases that show it happens far more often than we’d like to believe.
Some of these young offenders grew up in environments marked by extreme violence, while others were diagnosed with serious mental disorders, with experts concluding they derived pleasure from the brutal attacks.
In some cases, the children have expressed remorse and were eventually released on parole, rebuilding their lives after spending their youth behind bars. However, others continued to break the law after their release, leading authorities to place them back into custody.
Below, Bored Panda has compiled 15 cases of child criminals who are now free.
Trigger warning: This article contains graphic details that may be distressing to some.
#1 Curtis Fairchild Jones
Curtis Fairchild Jones was sentenced to prison when he was 12 years old. In July 2015, he was released at the age of 21.
Curtis and his sister, who is one year older, fatally sh*t their father’s girlfriend, Sonya Nicole Speights, in 1999. They had also planned to shoot their father and a male relative who they said was s*xually ass*ulting them.
After committing the crime, the siblings hid during the night in a wooded area until Brevard County Sheriff’s investigators found them.
They were charged as adults, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and accepted the sentence of 18 years and probation for life.
No one believed the teens were being ab*sed, despite the evidence found by investigators from what is now the Department of Children and Families.
Curtis’ sister, Catherine Jones, was released the same month at the age of 30.
Image source: Florida Today, Florida Today
#2 Morgan Geyser And Anissa Weier
Morgan Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, were 12 years old when they stabbed their classmate, Payton Leutner, to appease the fictional supernatural character Slender Man.
The friends lured the victim into a suburban Milwaukee park after a sleepover at Morgan’s home in 2014.
Payton survived the attack after being assisted by a passing cyclist.
The girls were charged with attempted intentional homicide and were tried as adults. They were later found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and were committed to psychiatric facilities.
Weier received a sentence of 25 years to life, and Geyser was sentenced to 40 years to life. Weier was released in 2021, while Geyser was released this year to live in a group home under supervision.
More than a decade later, Geyser, now 22 years old, cut off her court-ordered monitoring bracelet and escaped the group home in Madison, Wisconsin.
She and another adult reportedly took a bus to Posen, Illinois. On Sunday night (November 23), Morgan was located at a truck stop with the other adult, and they were both taken into custody.
#3 Bailey Junior Kurariki
In 2001, Bailey Junior Kurariki was involved in the robbery and homicide of pizza deliveryman Michael Richard Choy in Auckland, New Zealand.
The then–12-year-old was convicted of manslaughter, making him the youngest person in New Zealand history to receive that conviction.
On September 12, 2001, Kurariki and a group of teenagers attacked Michael Choy with a baseball bat and robbed him of money and the pizzas he was delivering.
Two of the teenagers, Whatarangi Rawiri and Alexander Tokorua Peihopa, were convicted of murder and received life sentences for planning the attack and leading the group.
Kurariki was released on parole in 2008. At the time, the victim’s mother, Rita Croskery, expressed doubt that he no longer posed a threat to society.
“They say in the last month, he has made amazing progress. I just sincerely hope that they are right, but it seems pretty amazing all right that he can change so suddenly,” she said.
In 2011, Kurariki was convicted on domestic violence charges and sentenced to 14 months in prison. He had previously been sent back to prison in 2009 for breaching his parole conditions.
Image source: Lawrence Smith / Stuff, Lawrence Smith / Stuff
#4 Jake Eakin
Jake Eakin was 12 when investigators said he beat and fatally stabbed Craig Sorger, a 13-year-old developmentally disabled boy, after spending time with him in a park.
Sorger’s body was discovered in a park in the small community of Ephrata, Washington, on February 15, 2003.
Police noted that the accounts given by Eakin and his 12-year-old accomplice, Evan Savoie, were inconsistent and that the victim’s blood was found on both boys’ clothing.
Savoie and Eakin were charged with first and second-degree murder, respectively, despite maintaining their innocence. Savoie’s mother criticized the verdict, calling the judge “biased.”
Eakin eventually confessed as part of a plea deal and agreed to testify against Savoie.
Eakin was sentenced to 14 years in prison, while Savoie initially received a 26-year sentence, later reduced to 20 years on appeal.
Eakin was released in 2017 and has since become an anti-abortion activist. He has been arrested twice since his release: once in 2018 for trespassing and again in 2022 for larceny. Savoie, who confessed to the crime after ten years, was released in 2023.
Image source: KREM 2 News, KREM 2 News
#5 Eric M. Smith
In 2022, Eric M. Smith was released from a correctional facility after serving 28 years for a crime against Derrick Robie.
When he was 13, Smith fatally struck 4-year-old Derrick Robie with a rock after luring the boy into a wooded area near the victim’s home in Savona, western New York, in 1993.
Smith was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to nine years to life in prison.
During his parole hearing, Smith blamed the attack on the anger he felt from being bullied as a child.
“After years of reflection, looking at who I was then and what was going on, I essentially became the bully that I disliked in everything else in my life,” he said, as per the Associated Press.
Image source: 13 WHAM, WXXI News
#6 Mitchell Johnson
In 1998, students Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden opened fire at Westside Middle School, taking the lives of five people and wounding ten others.
Johnson and Golden, then 13 and 11 years old, respectively, were arrested as they attempted to flee the scene. They were convicted of five counts of murder.
The Jonesboro prosecutor later stated that, were it not for their young ages, he would have sought capital punishment for both perpetrators.
Arkansas state law mandated that both youths be released on their 21st birthdays. Johnson was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Memphis in 2005, having spent seven years in prison. Golden was released in 2007 after serving nine years.
After his release, Johnson repeatedly ran into legal trouble as an adult. He was sentenced to prison on weapon and illegal substance-related charges, as well as theft and financial identity fraud. He was released from federal custody in 2015.
As for Golden, he applied for a concealed-carry permit in Arkansas in 2008, but State Police denied the application, determining that he had lied about his past addresses and was legally banned from possessing firearms.
In 2019, at age 33, Golden lost his life in a car crash near Cave City, Arkansas, when another vehicle veered into his lane.
Image source: Across The Table, Down the Rabbit Hole
#7 Amarjeet Sada
Amarjeet Sada has been linked to the homicides of three babies, including two family members, according to a 2008 report by The Guardian.
The 8-year-old boy from Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, reportedly admitted to strangling a six-month-old baby in Musahari and led villagers to the spot where he had buried the body.
He is also believed to have taken the lives of his eight-month-old sister and nine-month-old cousin. Villagers suspect the boy’s family covered up the earlier crimes before he carried out the third attack.
Sada was reportedly placed in a juvenile home in Munger and was released in 2016 after turning 18.
Police stated that Sada suffers from psychiatric disorders. A psychologist described him as a “sadist who derived pleasure from inflicting injuries,” as per NDTV.
Image source: NDTV
#8 Danny And Ricky Preddie
Danny and his brother, Ricky Preddie, were convicted of manslaughter in 2006 after forensic evidence linked them to the 2000 homicide of schoolboy Damilola Taylor.
The 10-year-old victim had moved to Britain from Nigeria a few months before he was stabbed in the thigh with a broken beer bottle as he walked home from the local library. He was found in a stairwell and rushed to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The brothers, who were 12 and 13 at the time of the crime and were members of the Peckham Boys criminal group, were sentenced to eight years in custody.
Danny Preddie was freed in September 2011 after serving five years of his sentence.
Ricky was released on parole in September 2010, but was recalled to prison just 16 days later for breaking the conditions of his license.
He had been seen in Southwark, south London, associating with criminals, both of which were violations of the terms of his release. He was reportedly released again in 2012.
Image source: Metropolitan Police, Metropolitan Police
#9 Paul Gingerich
Paul Henry Gingerich was just 12 years old when he helped his friend, 15-year-old Colt Lundy, shoot Lundy’s stepfather.
Both minors were accused of firing two sh*ts each into Phil Danner’s body in 2010.
Lundy reportedly planned the crime after enduring verbal and physical ab*se from his stepfather when he drank. On April 20, 2010, Gingerich climbed through a window of Lundy’s bedroom in his family’s home in Cromwell, Indiana. The boys then grabbed two of the weapons Danner kept in the house and waited for him in the living room.
According to a court record, all Danner had time to say was “What the f**k?” before Lundy and Gingerich fired two bullets into the 49-year-old’s body.
Lundy and Gingerich were charged with murder. Six months later, both pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of conspiracy to commit murder and were sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Gingerich was released from prison in 2017 and inspired Indiana’s Paul’s Law, which gives Indiana courts greater flexibility in deciding juvenile sentences. Lundy was allowed to complete his sentence on home detention in 2019.
Image source: Indy Star, Calamari Productions
#10 Cristian Fernandez
When he was 12 years old, Cristian Fernandez pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated battery charges before being placed in custody at a Department of Juvenile Justice facility.
The Jacksonville man had a history of childhood trauma. He was s*xually as**ulted as a child and was born to a 12-year-old mother who had also been s*xually as**ulted by his 25-year-old father.
Fernandez was arrested in March 2011 and charged with the crime against his 2-year-old half-brother, David Galarraga.
He reportedly beat the child and slammed his head into a bookshelf. The boy lost his life two days after the attack. Fernandez’s mother, Biannela Susana, waited nearly eight hours before seeking medical attention for the unconscious boy and was charged with aggravated manslaughter.
A judge arranged for Fernandez to be released from custody a day after his 19th birthday in 2018. After being released from the juvenile facility, he began serving eight years of probation.
Image source: FloridaTimes, Florida Bar
#11 Edwin Debrow
In 1991, when he was 12 years old, Edwin Debrow Jr. was arrested for the slaying of San Antonio taxi driver Curtis Edwards.
Debrow grew up on the streets. The adults in his life struggled with illegal substances, and he surrounded himself with older people involved in crime.
Bexar County sentenced him to 27 years behind bars. As a juvenile, he was eligible for release at the age of 18.
“I wasn’t ready to get out at 18 years old. At 18, I wouldn’t have been a changed person,” he admitted.
While serving his sentence, Debrow obtained his GED, took college classes, and learned computer skills.
“This stuff works, if you want it to work. There are some people who want to change, and some who don’t,” he said.
Debrow was released in 2019 at the age of 40. Once he completes his parole, he reportedly plans to visit the grave of Curtis Edwards.
Image source: Alamy, Spectrum News 1
#12 Jasmine Richardson
Jasmine Richardson and her 23-year-old “boyfriend,” Jeremy Steinke, fatally stabbed her family at her home in Alberta, Canada.
Richardson, then 12 years old, had developed an obsession with serial criminals such as Jeffrey Dahmer. After she began dating Steinke, her relationship with her family deteriorated.
Though her parents forbade her from seeing him, she continued to sneak out of the house to meet Steinke and communicated with him online.
Prior to the crime, the 23-year-old had posted on his blog about wanting to “slit” the throats of Richardson’s parents. According to police reports, Richardson proposed the crime, writing to Steinke, “It begins with me k*lling them and ends with me living with you.”
In 2006, the couple carried out the crime at Richardson’s home in Medicine Hat, taking the lives of Marc Richardson, Debra Richardson, and the couple’s 8-year-old son, Tyler Jacob.
Richardson, diagnosed with conduct disorder, received a 10-year prison sentence, which was completed on May 6, 2016. Her sentence included four years in a psychiatric institution.
Steinke was sentenced to life in prison in 2008 and will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Commons
#13 Mary Bell
On May 25, 1968, the day before her 11th birthday, Mary Bell strangled 4-year-old Martin Brown in an abandoned house in Scotswood, England.
She and a friend, Norma, later vandalized a nursery school and left notes claiming responsibility for the child crime. They also threatened to carry out more crimes, though the warnings were dismissed as a prank.
Authorities did not believe Bell’s claims, accusing her of lying for attention, until two months later, when another boy, 3-year-old Brian Howe, was found lifeless on July 31, 1968. Bell and Norma had strangled him.
During her trial, Bell, a neglected child who was reportedly ab*sed by her mother, was described as committing the crimes “solely for the pleasure and excitement of k*lling.”
She was convicted of manslaughter after being diagnosed with psychopathic personality disorder. Norma, then aged 13, was considered an unwitting participant and was acquitted.
Bell, now 68 years old, was released from prison at age 23 after serving a 12-year sentence.
Image source: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
#14 Robert Thompson
Robert Thompson and friend Jon Venables took the life of toddler James Bulger in Merseyside, England, in 1993.
The perpetrators were 10 years old, while the victim was 2.
Thompson and Venables led the boy away from the New Strand Shopping Centre, where he was visiting shops with his mother, before inflicting pain on him and brutally taking his life.
The toddler’s body was found on a railway line in Liverpool two days after the crime. The perpetrators had intended for a passing train to strike the victim, making his fatality appear accidental.
The minors were found guilty of abduction and murder, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history.
In June 2001, a Parole Board decision recommended their release on a life license at the age of 18.
In 2017, Venables was again sent to prison for possessing child p***ography images on his computer.
Image source: BWP Media
#15 Terrence Sampson
An athletic 13-year-old girl named Kelly Brumbelow was found lifeless in a suburb near Austin, Texas, in 1989.
She and her 12-year-old friend and neighbor, Terrence Sampson, had been playing basketball in her driveway when Brumbelow’s mother called her on the phone.
The victim went inside to take the call, but according to her mother, Sampson believed his friend was lying to him and making an excuse to abandon him.
Sampson then reportedly went back to his house to test his theory. He called Brumbelow to see if he would get a busy signal. The girl answered, leading him to think he was right. However, he didn’t know that Brumbelow’s phone had a call waiting, allowing her to place the first call on hold while answering another.
He told her over the phone that he had a surprise for her at his house. When she arrived, he fatally stabbed her multiple times in the head and face.
Sampson was given the maximum sentence and incarcerated at the Giddings State School. He was paroled in 2019. The man, now a father of two, has expressed remorse for the crime and apologized to the victim’s family.
Image source: News 21, Prison: The Hidden Sentence
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