Suspect In Homeless Man's Death: We Gutted Him, Then Laughed

[The Straight Story]

Jacksonville, NC - Statement from one of three men indicted last week in the murder of a homeless man in Jacksonville over the summer say they did it because they heard the man kissed a young girl.

Newly released statements from the three arrested, 21-year-old Jason Blackmon, 27-year-old Jay Oldaker and 22-year-old Dustin Newcome say they killed 41-year-old Mike Kozak in June of 2008 to teach him a lesson.

The statements are attached to the top of this report. Click on them to read them.

Documents state the trio beat Kozak over the head with a pipe, a tree limb, and then used a broken beer bottle to gut him.

Blackmon's statement reports "Jay picked up a pipe and started beating Mike in the head with it. As he was doing that, the pipe broke and I picked up the broken piece and started beating him in the head also. Dusty started jumping up and down on his midsection and Jay was still kicking him in the head."

http://www.witn.com/watercooler/headlines/22716404.html

The rest is more graphic, read at your own risk.

[spanone]

1. lock them up and toss the key in the ocean

[malaise]

20. Ditto n/t

[dkf]

2. Ugh.

After this and the crocodile story I am gored out.

[AndyA]

8. Me too. I just finished reading the croc story.

:puke:

These three guys need to be locked away permanently. So much violence and anger, what the heck? At their age, I was mostly happy. Hard to imagine someone so angry at such a young age.

[Deja Q]

12. Next step further - apart from justice, how were they raised? Nature vs nurture,

it's also possible they had the best, most thoughtful parents in the world and these kids were just evolutionary throwbacks. At least weeding out some possibilities would help.

I don't often care for eugenics, but in this case I'm all for selective breeding -- there is no justification for their wanton cruelty.

[KittyWampus]

35. maybe they were on Meth?

[WI_DEM]

3. how can people be so caviler about taking a human life? it's beyond

my comprehension.

[Hoopla Phil]

4. We are supposed to be living in a civilized society. But we really are not civilized.

We have advanced in technology and knowledge but we are really not that much more civilized than in years past.

This is just a horrible thing to happen.

[Deja Q]

10. I know. "Boys will be boys". Let's let them go free.

:sarcasm:

Sometimes, bullies will be bullies. The last 30+ years, bullies have gotten far more leeway and their victims take the toll.

Enough is enough.

Real change is needed.

An ounce of prevention - better to tap these brats on the head than to stuff 'em in an electric chair. And the death threat, for certain crimes, is a fair deterrent to others. Doing it or, as our media loves to exaggerate and lie anyway, just SAY it. Get people in line.

Sorry to be so heartless. I have a personal story in all this and not because I was a bully. Quite the opposite. And the school let the bullies do what they want. (post school grades proving I actually have a functioning brain; if the school I went to ever dare use me as a "success story" I'd sue them to Hades and back and then back again thrice over. )

[Hoopla Phil]

27. Agreed.

Sounds like we have a common road through school.

[sammythecat]

36. Many of us are civilized, while many

are simply held in check. History, from earliest times to the present day, is just crammed full of examples where, once given license, a frighteningly large percentage of people will descend into barbaric savagery.

Your comment about out advanced technology and knowledge (not wisdom) reminded me of one of my favorite quotations. I wish I knew who said it, but it goes like this: "We have become very clever, but not yet wise." That's the most accurate one sentence summation of humankind I've yet found.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Sigh. RIP.

[Deja Q]

6. Exterminate them. They are a waste of food and water. No sympathy. No coy talk either.

Exterminate them.

They are inhuman filth.

[remoulade]

7. I would gladly pull the switch on these manifestations of filth.

...

[Deja Q]

11. If we can't pull it together, I'll open the console to reveal the switch.

There is a line. Civilization does not condone anarchistic behavior of the magnitude those sub-animals engaged in.

[remoulade]

15. Understood & agreed.

...

[Arugula Latte]

33. Life in prison is more of a punishment than death is.

[TwilightGardener]

9. "Teach him a lesson"? What, that some people are sick, violent fucks?

Well, mission accomplished, boys--you sure showed him. Until he lost consciousness, anyway.

[Ocracoker16]

13. There is something very wrong with these young men

Their pleasure from killing an innocent homeless man is sick. I hope that they receive the punishment that they deserve for committing this hateful act.

[WI_DEM]

16. My guess is that they all tortured animals too

[bobbolink]

18. "these young men"... if only! This is happening all over! Why? Because WE HAVE ALLOWED

DAMNED STEREOTYPES OF HOMELESS PEOPLE, AND IT STILL HAPPENS RIGHT HERE ON DU.

Then, when something like this happens, the "outrage" is only expressed on a forum.

WE DON'T TAKE ACTION!

[surrealAmerican]

23. ... and the other half of the equation:

In our society, it's acceptable to punish "bad people" by killing them. The death penalty sets a very bad example for vicious thugs like these men. "Teach him a lesson"? That is so sick I hardly know where to start.

[Uzybone]

30. How do you know that these thugs aren't homeless themselves?

I doubt they attacked and killed their"friend" because he was homeless. If you read the sorry, they actually claim to be friends with their victim. Fucking animals.

[AgadorSparticus]

14. omg. i'm still trying to wrap my mind around this. how?? how do you get this way?

just....horrific.

[gratuitous]

24. You have to be taught very carefully

And our society is pretty sick that way. Militarism, violence, and revenge are the Holy Trinity of our national religion (and no, fundies, it isn't Christianity; it's much older). During the past decade, we have been told and shown that the first, easiest, and best solution to any problem is the application of violence, the more wanton, the more better. As a nation, we fire on unarmed civilians, drop bombs without warning on people who can't protect or defend themselves and can't get away, and we torture those we don't kill outright.

If you say something against this brutality, you're mocked, ridiculed, and threatened. Popular commentators with national audiences will question your patriotism, your manhood, and your sanity for questioning the holy myth of redemptive violence. These young men (for young they are) have internalized the lessons our society has carefully taught them.

[bobbolink]

17. Yes. We can tut-tut, and get all worked up. OR... we can see what is happening more and more

AND TAKE ACTION!!

[Cleita]

19. This illustrates another reason that we have to end our homeless problem.

Homeless people need a place to live with a lock and key. They also need more police protection. There is a lot of violence perpetrated on them that we never hear about, not to mention the out and out neglect by institutions that should know better like hospitals.

[KamaAina]

21. There are dozens of vacancies at our local shelter

meanwhile, people sleep at bus stops rather than go there, because they know their stuff would get stolen.

[Cleita]

22. Not only are they afraid of getting robbed, but of getting diseases and

maybe even being beaten up for their stuff. Shelters really need to get away from the skid row model of the forties and fifties where most of the homeless men were substance abusers and weren't particular where they slept or who was sleeping in the cot next to them. I would like to see social services make a deal with motels and hotels to take room vouchers from the homeless that could be distributed at the shelters and soup kitchens. There are almost always vacancies somewhere in town, especially during off seasons. Then they could seriously think of something more permanent in the way of housing for the destitute.

[bobbolink]

28. no more shelters!

Would YOU like to spend the rest of your life bouncing from shelter to shelter?

Why do we keep up with this SHELTER stuff?? That was Raygun's deal... shelters and more shelters, so he could cut low-income housing.

Shelters are NOT the answer... start demanding adequate low-income housing NOW!

[KamaAina]

29. We're one of the few "bright spots" in the national housing market

for the owners, that is. The rental vacancy rate here stands at a whopping 0.5%. And many of those are in outlying areas.

They could, of course, build new housing, seeing as how that'd stimulate the economy 'n' stuff... but you'd have to talk to our repuke gov...

[bobbolink]

31. "but you'd have to talk to our repuke gov..." Yes, we poor folk are always expected to do it on

our own---without help from our "friends".

Isn't it interesting that there are other groups here on DU who can count on support from "progressives", but not poor folk?

[KamaAina]

32. By "you" (plural) I meant "any progressive interested in housing issues"

that was a shot at Lingle (R-Plays A Moderate On TV), not you.

[bobbolink]

34. I'm glad you clarified that. You have to understand just what it feels like to be homeless and

ignored.

Do you have ANY idea what this feels like? Does it matter?

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

25. Human sewage

Life in the hoosegow, the big house and the slammer. Some Aryan Brotherhood guy named Earl is gonna be your new boyfriend soon enough. Good luck, dickwads, you're gonna need it. And you will get exactly what you earned and deserve.

Wanna guess who they probably voted for?

[zazen]

26. wow--that lynching meme dies hard, and J-ville boys _are_ crazy

I grew up around the "civilized" racists, in Wilmington, NC. It was bad enough there, but you could cut the tension in the air in J-ville with a knife. I don't know if the victim was white, black whatever (sounds like a Yankee, which is equivalent to black in those parts)--but the use of the "kissed a girl" (kissed one of our "virgin white" girls) rationale is straight from the turn of the _last_ century, not the more recent one. And a tree limb? These are some lost boys looking to connect with a pathetic patriarchal heritage.

My soul just reels when I read this, like when I read of women being burned for witchcraft in Africa or stoned for "adultery" in Sudan.