Stabbing Trial Begins: Punishment for the Crime
Posted: Saturday, January 21, 2012
by Jack H. Schick
I haven’t committed a whole lot of crime in my life. I have to say that I did perpetrate the occasional shoplifting and a little Halloween vandalism when I was a kid. I got a ticket from a hard ass township cop for not coming to a complete stop once, and I had to go to court for burning trash in a barrel during a drought moratorium. Beyond that I don’t have much to report. The only serious crime I’ve committed is drunk driving, and I sure did a lot of that.
One of the reasons it persisted until long after I left the Cowboy State and moved back to Pennsylvania is because I got away with it. I did have a serious accident while I was drunk, but since it was just my truck and no one was hurt, they didn’t charge me with anything. I got pulled over once, but since I was so close to the house, the officer let me go on home. It was a different time and place. I never had to suffer the consequences, legally at least, so I continued to commit the crime. Had they busted me, suspended my license, jailed me, maybe I would have quit drinking and driving long before I did. It’s just luck that no one was hurt during my 30 year crime spree.
I think it might be the same in the case of Manual Robert Orourke, 35, of Yucca Valley, California. In January of 2006 he was charged with “inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or co-habitant,” making terrorist threats and assault with a deadly weapon (that means he did something like: beat up his wife, shook a knife in her face and told her he was going to cut her heart out). In April of 2006, he managed to get a plea bargain. He had to plead guilty to inflicting corporal injury, but the other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to three years supervised probation.
Two weeks later, in May of 2006, Orourke fatally stabbed 23-year-old Justin Wayne St. Clair during a fight at an apartment building in Yucca Valley. He was charged with murder (his parole for the previous crime was revoked, naturally). District Attorney Alex Martinez said that given the circumstances of the case it would have been difficult to get a murder conviction so a plea bargain was offered again. St. Clair’s family and friends weren't happy, but Orourke was allowed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to three years in prison. After all St. Clair started it, and it was a fair fight, until Orourke pull out his knife and stabbed him to death.
Manual Robert Orourke served his time, as short as it might have seemed for killing a man with a knife (when he was on parole for threatening someone with a knife). He was left out of prison on probation and moved back to Yucca Valley where he took up residence in the 7600 block of Aster Avenue. He apparently wasn’t quite rehabilitated in three years, though. On August 11, 2011, he stabbed a woman.
He was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, again. It’s only the second time he’s faced the same charge—the one from May, 2006 was manslaughter, not assault, remember? His trial in Joshua Tree Superior Court began last week. He hopes to negotiate a plea bargain.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Glad your crime spree is over.
As for Manual Orourke, there is not a good solution, because he has a violent streak. No amount of incarceration will end that, but it will contain him from stabbing innocents outside of the prisonl. However, many die in prison due to their hot headed tempers. Shanks and other implements are easily obtained, and the prisoners do stab each other from time to time, fatally.
Most men who abuse their wives/girfriends have emotional/mental issues, and it usually includes "anger management issues".. not controlled, it escalates to violence against others when no female is available to abuse.
This is a good example of 'one' of the more serious social problems in our culture.I'm glad too. The irony hit me here. oh well--california.
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