Teen Accused of Beating and Stabbing His Father to Death Had Gotten One Last Chance from Judge
Despite misgivings, an Illinois judge decided to give a teen from suburban Chicago another chance when the youth was back in court for a probation violation in March.
The Cook County judge, Thomas Fecarotta Jr., credited 19-year-old Mathew Nellessen with time served and released him from custody, the Chicago Tribune reports. Less than a month later, Nellessen was charged with murder. He was accused of forcing his father to write him a $100,000 check and killing him by beating him with a baseball bat and stabbing him with a knife.
In March, Fecarotta decided to give the youth a chance after his arrests for possession of drugs and failing to appear in court, a violation of probation stemming from a residential burglary, the story says. He had no record of violent offenses.
The Tribune quotes from court transcripts. “The public is going to say what is with this crazy judge, he got a kid that he gave a break to,” Fecarotta said. But he also worried about being too harsh. “This is a very, very touchy issue because everyone, of course, is going to be saying, ‘What if?’ What if the judge did not show the compassion he had, which was a well-founded compassion?’”
