On July 29, Joel Rubin of the L.A. Times, wrote that Charles Samuel, 50, was charged in the horrific crime after 17-year-old Lilly Burk never returned to her family’s home after running an errand for her mother.
In the afternoon, she made two odd calls to her parents asking how to use a credit card to withdraw cash at an ATM. About 7 p.m., they contacted police to report her missing. Later that night, police tracked Burk’s cell phone and ATM activity to the bad parts of Los Angeles but still nothing turned up.
Lilly’s body was recovered in a parked car downtown later. Her throat had been cut. Police obtained surveillance footage reportedly showing Samuel driving away from the area in Burk’s car with her in the passenger seat, and of Burk with her at a downtown ATM machine and then abandoning the car.
His fingerprints were found inside of the car and Samuel reportedly made incriminating statements to police who believe the girl was killed within about 45 minutes of her last call home.
The sad fact is, a lot of people think, “Oh that sort of thing could never happen here,” but the reality is, the way our court system functions in this county, sooner or later it will.
There have been two local incidents where somebody got arrested, got out of jail that day and got arrested later on in the day.
The first instance was a local guy who got busted breaking into cars here on the street. He got arrested, was arraigned, got out on a Public Recognizance bond — which means he didn’t even have to pay any money and got out of jail free — only to be arrested again within the hour when he went into B&B loans and got caught stealing, then fled down the street.
You might think that’s not a big deal. But, had somebody gotten hurt, it would have been a big deal. And to the victims, it certainly was a big deal. Some people think basic theft is not a “violent” crime when no act of battery is committed.
The problem with that line of thinking is that in reality, any theft is an aggressive crime and aggression can lead to violence.
For example, few crimes have as much opportunity for violence as home invasion robberies. I can still remember Circuit Judge Roger Perry pointing that out one time during a trial when a local thief was being sentenced and his attorney had said he had no intention of hurting anybody during his break ins.
Judge Perry noted that many thieves are sitting on death row today, in other states after they broke into somebody’s home with the intention of stealing something and wound up killing the homeowner.
Want a more extreme case?
A few months ago a guy was arrested, jailed and got out of jail only to be arrested again within 24 hours. That evening he had somebody drop him off at his ex-girlfriend’s home, which he proceeded to riddle with .45 caliber bullets. Somebody easily could have been killed in that incident.
The reality is that the way things are right now, far too many people are getting out of jail on PR bonds for charges that deserve an actual cash bond at best. And too many people are getting arrested on serious charges that get dropped down to next to nothing so the court system can clear the case — regardless of the actual threat the various individuals may post to the public.
This happens because it is expensive to keep people in jail, but sadly, some people in authority don’t want to face the fact that sometimes its’ worth the expense. The death of Lilly Burk being the textbook example.
In the world we live in, anybody can make a mistake and run afoul of the law and get arrested. That’s why we have second chances. However, just how many second chances do you give somebody before you realize they are nothing but trouble and will never learn from their past mistakes? When somebody gets arrested over and over and over and over and over for serious things like theft and drug activity, and they don’t even make a lame attempt to straighten their act up, maybe it’s time to keep them locked up no matter what it costs for public safety.
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