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You took a very big part of our lives away and that piece of the puzzle will always be missing. i hope you rot in prison for the rest of your life. even that will be too good for you. brad didn t deserve to die the way he did. he died a very violent and lonely death. no one should have to die that way. rot in hell, mr. leija, that s exactly where you deserve to be. you need to be off the streets so you can t hurt anybody else. i pray the court agrees with me and you get life in prison. when the victim s mother is finished with her statement, leija has an opportunity to read his apology. mr. leija, anything further you d like to say before i impose sentence? no, your honor. so mr. leija, mandatorily on felony firearm, it s the sentence of this court that you be committed for two years to the michigan department of corrections. consecutive to that and on second degree murder, it s the sentence of this court, mr. leija, that you be committed ....
I m ready to get it over with. i don t have to apologize to the victim s family, but i m going to. i think it looks better, shows that i am sorry. move it, everybody has to fit in there. made me realize the damage that i have done to this family. i have a lot of regrets. this is one of the biggest ones i have is to kill somebody, you know. people versus joe leija i m going to have a lot of family in the courtroom. my parents are going to be there, my mom, my dad. my aunt, my uncle, my brothers and sisters. it makes it way easier for me. as the proceedings get under way, the victim s mother takes the podium and reads her statement to the court. i still don t understand why you had to pump six bullets into my son. it just goes to show what a cold-blooded killer you really are. it seems to me taking a life came way too easy for you. now i wonder how many other lives you may have taken with no remorse. you didn t just shoot a person, you shot my son. ....
Because i had a good time. leija is now cleared to be sentenced and it is likely to be soon. steven sutherland, who 20 years earlier was a deputy here at the jail, still awaits trial on his charge of criminal sexual misconduct with a minor. now he s also facing disciplinary action in the jail for allegedly making inappropriate comments to another male inmate in the showers. the sergeant, who worked with sutherland when he was employed here, was assigned to investigate the accusations. they came in the form of two kites or notes from two different inmates. inmate sutherland knows me, i think he was trying to play on that during our hearing, calling me by my first name, kind of bringing me back to the days when we worked together, tried to work on my feelings. and i recognized what he was trying to do. if an officer was to say that i m using my connections to get special treatment, i would say, ....
Months and 3 days. i have not been outside and breathed the air. this is the air i m breathing, from these vents. as an adult, leija has had prior convictions for possession of marijuana and assault and battery. before that, he had numerous stays in the county s juvenile facility. i already had my hands on a gun when i was a very young age. like i grew up too fast, man. running the streets, smoking weed, stealing cars. a lot of people said my mom wasn t a good mom, my dad wasn t a good father. but that s not what i m saying. i m saying i wasn t the best kid, you know. see, roll, salad, cake. same thing we get every day. that s why we re fat. we are. we re the fat group. over in the women s wing of the jail, vicki groth admits she hasn t always been the ideal kid either. while her crime didn t physically injure anyone, it might have still been painful for her young victims. ....
Even though joe leija pled guilty to second degree murder for shooting a man six times in the face, he has been in a state of limbo at the kent county jail. his judge cannot issue final sentence and send him to prison until his co-defendant s case is resolved. it s dragged on for more than two years, until now. he just lost trial yesterday. which is sad news, real sad news. so, you know, i was kind of couldn t really enjoy my meal yesterday when he came back from court. i was eating dinner and he told me like through the door, it s over, you know. he is just letting me know. he s at peace, you know. he still have peace in his heart. he wants to follow god. people come to jail and they find god. my faith ain t that strong really, it s not that strong. i m always going to be a mobster and i don t regret it, i don t, ....