Alright, so, you wanna know about this Joseph Mesa Jr. fella, huh? Lemme tell ya what I heard, the way I heard it. It ain’t gonna be fancy, but it’ll be the truth, as far as I know.
This all happened way back when, in the year 2000, they say. Down in Washington, at that Gallaudet University, the one for folks who can’t hear so good. Two young fellas, Eric Plunkett and Benjamin Varner, good boys everyone liked, got themselves killed. Murdered, they was. Awful thing, just awful.
Now, the police, they were scratchin’ their heads for a bit. Didn’t know who did it. But then, they started lookin’ at this young’un, Joseph Mesa Jr. He was a student there too, just a freshman, barely a man, only 20 years old they said. Come from some place called Guam, far away I reckon.
They say he was a quiet one, this Joseph. Kept to himself mostly. But something snapped in him, I guess. The police chief, Ramsey I think his name was, he said it was all about money. Said Joseph wanted to rob them boys, and things went bad, real bad.
- Two good boys, dead.
- A young fella, accused of murder.
- A whole school, scared and heartbroken.
They caught Joseph pretty quick, I hear. And then came the court stuff. Lots of lawyers and talkin’. Joseph, he didn’t say much. Just sat there quiet while they had someone translate everything into that sign language. He tried to say he wasn’t right in the head, you know, crazy. But the jury, they didn’t buy it. Nope, they said he knew what he was doin’.
So, they found him guilty. Not just once, but 15 times over, for different things. Took the jury just three hours to decide, that’s how sure they were. That was in September, 2000. Two years later, in 2002, the judge, he laid down the law. Sentenced Joseph for those murders.
Now, you’re askin’ where is he now? Well, that’s the part I don’t rightly know for sure. They sent him to prison, that much I know. For a long, long time, I’d bet. Murder ain’t somethin’ they let you walk away from. He probably ain’t ever gonna see the light of day again, not after killin’ them two boys like that. Gallaudet University, that place probably ain’t the same since then. All that sadness and fear… it sticks with a place, you know?
So, that’s the story of Joseph Mesa Jr., as best as I can tell it. A sad story, a bad story. A story about young lives lost and a young life ruined. Makes you think, don’t it? About how quickly things can go wrong, and how important it is to be good to each other.
And that’s all I got to say about that. Don’t go gettin’ yourself into no trouble now, ya hear?
Tags: [Joseph Mesa Jr., Gallaudet University, Eric Plunkett, Benjamin Varner, murder, trial, prison, Washington D.C., 2000, 2002]
