I ran across this story over at True Crime Report yesterday and have been toying with the idea of sharing it with you fine folks ever since. Pete Kotz is right about one thing, that’s for damn sure. This is a case that will test your morals, but should it? I’ll leave that for you to think about while you read the story, watch some of the videos and be sure to check out the links.
On February 8th, 2009 31-year-old Aaron Vargas told his fiance that he was going for a walk but instead drove to the motor coach owned by 63-year-old former Fort Bragg businessman, Boy Scout leader and Big Brother Darrell McNeill and shot him once in the chest, telling the man he would never be able to hurt anyone again. He then waited the 20 minutes for McNeill to die, preventing his widow Liz from calling the police until that point, disassembled the antique pistol he had killed McNeill and left it on the counter.
After he was sure McNeill was dead he left, got back in his girlfriend’s car and drove to his parent’s home and waited for the police to show up.
Pretty straightforward huh? Guy kills an old man, he’s guilty.
Maybe it’s not so clear.
Maybe Aaron Vargas did the world and it’s children a favor, but does that give him the right to take a man’s life?
Read on and see what you think…
Back in the eighties the McNeill and Vargas families were neighbors. As I mentioned above, McNeill was involved in the Boy Scouts and Big Brother organizations and he was a family friend as well. Michael McNeill, Darrell’s son, and Aaron Vargas were also friends from childhood.
It pretty much started in 1989 when Aaron accompanied the McNeills on a camping trip. He was 11-years-old. During that trip his entire life changed after Darrell McNeill molested the 11-year-old boy and began what would be 20 years of hell for Vargas, ending with him taking the life of the man who stole his childhood.
The molestation continued as Vargas grew older as did the intimidation. The older he got the less the molestation happened but McNeill would continue to insinuate himself into Vargas’ life. Visits, phone calls, he had even recently started showing up at the house Vargas shared with his fiancé Selena Barnett, asking to see their 9-month-old daughter and offering to “babysit” the little girl.
A few days after the shooting Michael McNeill called Aaron and told him about the years of emotional and sexual abuse he had suffered because of his own father. Other men have also come forward to support Aaron since the shooting as well, detailing how they were also molested by the degenerate.
What about McNeill’s family and children? What do they say?
They show up at the Mendocino County Courthouse in Ukiah on a regular basis to support Aaron Vargas, even going so far as to join the protests outside the courthouse.
The prosecution against Aaron Vargas dismisses the molestation as irrelevant to the case and testimony about it as self-serving, but really, isn’t it exactly what this trial is about in the end?
James Specie was involved with McNeill in the eighties as well through the Big Brother program. From the time he was nine until he turned 14 McNeill molested him as well. His life took a sharp turn after that. He became involved with drugs and had a hard time dealing with life on life’s terms. In 2006 he confided that he had been molested by McNeill and four days later killed himself with a gun. McNeill had recently come back into his life and was harassing him according to his brother. He just couldn’t take it and didn’t know what else to do.
Todd Rowan, a carpenter from Fort Bragg, was relieved when he heard about McNeill, thankful that nobody was going to get hurt anymore.
John Clemons, the son of McNeill’s first wife, admits that from the time he was 11 until he was old enough to threaten McNeill he was also molested by McNeill. Several years after McNeill and Clemons’ mother divorced she found out about the sexual abuse and reported it to the Fort Bragg Police Department but was told that the statute of limitations for sexual abuse was up and that there was nothing they could do unless she could come up with more recent victims. She then went to McNeill’s home and found what has been termed “sexually explicit” photographs of McNeill with another boy from Fort Bragg. She took them to the police who then told her that the pictures weren’t enough to warrant an investigation unless they had testimony to back it up.
Had the Fort Bragg Police Department opened it’s eyes and actually attempted to perform some police work instead of closing ranks with a local businessman they might have prevented the death of the predator two decades later.
The support that Aaron Vargas is receiving from the community of Fort Bragg as well as online shows how much we despise the degenerates that prey on our children. I’ve befriended Aaron Vargas myself and while I certainly don’t condone murder or any other vigilante action, when the people we have hired to protect us are too worried about the “war on drugs” and illegal aliens to actually investigate a suspected pedophile (with fucking pictures no less!) what are we to do?
If there is one thing/person that people in this country hate more than anything else it is a child molester. In prison they are hated and have to be segregated from the rest of the population else they die a horrible death. We don’t allow them to live near our schools or places of play and they have a hard time getting jobs. A large number of them are homeless, banding together in camps which we then run off. They aren’t allowed to be online in some states and if they join Facebook or MySpace they can be jailed in those states. This unfortunately doesn’t address the problem of degenerates that haven’t yet been caught from trolling for new victims. I personally like the idea of a “common” community where we can find the bastards and keep an eye on them but nobody wants that community of child molesters in their neighborhood. Would you?
Aaron Vargas will stand trial for that murder in April. He is charged with 1st Degree Murder With a Gun, False Imprisonment and Dissuading a Witness. If convicted he’ll spend 50 years to life in prison with no possibility for parole. Considering he’s spent the last 20 years in a prison Darrell McNeill’s fashioning, perhaps treatment really is the right option. While the defense attorney for Aaron Vargas offered a plea agreement thus far it has been met with deaf ears from the local DA. It looks like a jury nullification may have to be the only way to go. Even with the fact that Vargas admits that he shot McNeill they can still return a Not Guilty verdict.
I had planned on writing on this story a bit more but have to get to the doctor this morning. I’ll be updating it over the next few months.
Updated 6/15/10 – Back in April Vargas took a plea deal and pleaded No Contest to Manslaughter, which carries a sentence of up to ten years. Vargas’ supporters are calling for probation though.
The sentencing hearing started yesterday and included testimony from some of his supporters. Today is supposed to be more testimony and then the judge will be imposing the sentence from the bench. Hopefully Vargas will get that probation.
Links
Save Aaron – End the Silence of Child Rape
To Kill a Predator – Freda Moon
Save Aaron Vargas – The Petition Site
