Mother of sergeant fatally beaten in gang initiation takes aim at son’s killer, military

[unhappycamper]

Stephanie Cockrell embraces her grandson, Juwan Johnson Jr. while Johnson Jr.'s mother, Kenika Johnson, holds a photo of her late husband, Sgt. Juwan Johnson.


Mother of sergeant fatally beaten in gang initiation takes aim at son’s killer, military[br />By Steve Mraz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, May 25, 2008

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany – Losing a child is like somebody stabbing you in the heart with an ice pick and leaving it in just so they can apply pressure. The ice pick is never ripped out of your heart, just constantly ripped at.

That’s how Stephanie Cockrell, the mother of a soldier beaten to death by fellow troops during a 2005 gang initiation, described the feeling of life without her only child, Army Sgt. Juwan Johnson.

During a court-martial last week for Airman Nicholas Sims, Cockrell told the court she is not proud her son joined a gang hours before his death on July 4, 2005. She wonders how she’ll tell her grandson about the identity of the father he will never meet.

The 28-year-old Sims — who has been in pretrial confinement for 162 days — was sentenced Friday to eight years’ confinement, dishonorable discharge and reduction to the lowest rank for his role in Johnson’s death. However, Sims will serve no more than six years’ jail time because of a pretrial agreement and credit for time already served. On Wednesday, Sims pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, disobeying an order by being a gang member and distribution of marijuana and Ecstasy.

On July 3, 2005, Sims was one of at least six Gangster Disciples who beat Johnson for six minutes during a gang initiation near Kaiserslautern, according to testimony. Two soldiers were convicted last year for their part in Johnson’s death. They were sentenced to 12 years’ and six years’ of confinement, respectively. A third soldier tried in 2007 was acquitted.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55087

[tularetom]

1. Gang initiation?!? WTF?

I guess this is the result of lowering the standards to the point where you wind up with a military full of criminals, but somebody needs to think very long and hard about this. Where do the loyalties of these gang members lie? To the service or to the gang?

This ain't good.

[NYVet]

2. Gangs have always been in the military.

They just knew enough to lay very low until their term of service was up, then they went back home with the training that they got.

[tularetom]

3. There weren't any in 1961

At least they didn't try to recruit me.

I feel left out.