Mentally Ill Juvenile Sentenced To 50 Years In Prison

A court in Manley County, Kansas sentenced a psychologically ill juvenile to existence imprisonment without any possibility of parole for half a century. Andrew Ellman was charged of killing his mental health worker, Terri Zenner.

The defendant was 17 years of age as he wiped out the victim. While he would be a juvenile during the time of the incident he wasn't qualified for that dying penalty.

His victim, Teri Zenner, was 26 years of age and lately married as he wiped out her. She labored for Manley County Mental Health attempting to help Andrew Ellmaker learn abilities and get a job. She stopped by Ellmaker's Overland Park home on August 17, 2004, for any routine home visit.

She never left alive. Andrew Ellmaker stabbed her to dying and cut her having a chainsaw. Also, he stabbed his mother when she attempted to intervene.

Sue Ellmaker, the defendant's mother, made it the ordeal. She pleaded for whim in the sentencing due to her son's mental illness. She stated that her boy battled early with mental illness. When he grew to become a teenager, his mental disorders overcome him. He walked the hallways of his senior high school alone and used a black sweatshirt using the hood stopped his eyes. She placed her boy in institutions until her insurance benefits went out after which needed to allow him to live at home.

The victim's husband, Matt Zenner, cared nothing with this defense.

"I am fed up with listening to mental illness," he stated in the sentencing hearing. "Fully stand up and become a guy. You wallow in it and stare in the floor.... It's beyond my comprehension that you simply could do that.Inch

Because the husband from the victim, Matt Zenner is titled to his feelings of loss, anger and bereavement. The household of Terri Zenner warrants all of our empathy.

However, like a society we have to overcome our prejudice that mental illness is both incomprehensive and inexcusable. Otherwise, we're able to face much more tragedies like Teri Zenner's.

Greater than 70 percent of youth within the juvenile justice system are afflicted by a minumum of one mental health disorder, based on the National Center for Mental Health insurance and Juvenile Justice. For women, the amount is even greater. 80 percent of women in juvenile justice suffer mental illness. For those culprits, troublesome disorders are the most typical, then substance use disorders, panic disorders and mood disorders.

Over 60 percent of youths in juvenile justice meet criteria for 3 or more disorders. 25 % find their lives seriously impaired by mental illness.

For a lot of of the families, juvenile justice provides their first and just use of mental health services. Sue Ellmaker claimed that they stored her boy in institutions "until her insurance benefits went out." He then came back towards the community, where he posed a deadly danger towards the community.

Juvenile justice isn't setup for mental health services. The aims and services of juvenile justice vary from the requirements of the psychologically ill youths who go into the system.

Families nurturing with mental illness feel frustrated, overcome and exhausted. Within my lawyer, we help these families by matching special education, juvenile justice and mental health services.

Andrew Ellmaker warrants to invest the relaxation of his existence imprisonment. The relaxation people, though, must work even harder to assist families raising kids with special needs. It's the only method to prevent future tragedies from happening.

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