You’ve seen the headshot, or the mugshot — even thugshot if you prefer — and so has much of the country.
That is what happens when a 13-year-old who has been charged with two murders, essentially by ambush, escapes the custody of law enforcement by shedding leg restraints and bolting out the door to the river’s edge, and then spends 30 hours on the loose with law enforcement boots all around and helicopters overhead.
It turns heads in the same direction.
We are sure different people saw different things in the face of Jericho Weller, whose name and image were released by law enforcement in an unusual move considering the suspect was 13 years old. But, it must be understood that the decision was made to expedite Weller’s return to custody.
Some, we are sure, saw a child who was whimpering, afraid, wondering what would come next. Others saw something quite different, perhaps even a cold-blooded killer.
We don’t know the degree of culpability that Weller — if there is any at all — had in the murders of two brothers this past month, deaths apparently that were related to drugs. There is presumed evidence, of course, but there is also a very real question of how much culpability should even be assigned to a person who is essentially a child, and whose brain is not fully developed.
Matt Scott, our district attorney, will earn his paycheck on this one because he must decide whether or not Weller is to be steered to the juvenile system, from which there is a chance at rehabilitation, or into the adult system, from which there is little hope of redemption if the child is convicted. Was Weller fully aware and involved, an active participant, or was he just tagging along with big brother, a 19-year-old also charged in the murders?
No matter Scott’s call, it will be second-guessed and criticized.
Of this we are confident: Young Weller is in many ways a microcosm of what ails Robeson County, a condition that sentences us to the wrong end of so many quality-of-life lists.
We have a saying: The Public Schools of Robeson County has to deal with 22,000 students and 33,000 parents. If you struggle at math, our point is too many young children are being raised — if that is even the correct word — by a single parent, and often that parent is herself or himself also a child.
Making babies doesn’t require much of a skill set. Raising them to be good and productive people, however, is a skill in short supply, especially in this county. So many of these children are left to roam free. And too often they get on the wrong side of the law, growing older and bolder, and causing mayhem. Most, however, don’t kill as teenagers, as Weller is accused of doing.
From what we have been able to gather, Weller came from a broken home. His father was not in the picture, and he called his uncle “Daddy.” His mother took to Facebook to assure everyone that Jericho was a good boy, but admitted he was troubled, and pointed fingers of blame in all directions except the mirror.
It’s clear to us that Weller, 5 feet tall and 110 pounds, thought himself to be tough, and probably felt tougher with a firearm. A photograph that was posted on Facebook, that apparently was taken shortly before he was returned to custody, showed him flashing what appears to be a gang sign and his buddy giving the world the finger.
He probably isn’t feeling so tough right now.
Odds are strongly against a happy ending for Weller. But his story, although more egregious than most, is not unique.
If only it were.
— The Robesonian, Lumberton